Vukotich named as new head of autonomous driving development of BMW

Germany automaker BMW stated on Saturday Alejandro Vukotich is going to be the new head of its driver assistance and autonomous driving development department from January next year.

Vukotich will replace Elmar Frickenstein, who has been in charge of the department since it was created in May 2016 and who will retire following a three-month handover phase in March.

The automaker in April concentrated its driver assistance and autonomous driving development in Unterschleißheim near its Munich headquarters.

BMW and its partners, consisting of FCA, Intel and Mobileye have 1,300 specialists working to develop a technology stack for automated driving.

Previously this year, BMW announced strategies to boost research and development (R&D) spending to an all-time high of up to 7 billion euros ($7.96 billion) in this year as costs for developing electric and autonomous vehicles spike.