Mercedes-Benz and BMW announced earlier this year that they will cooperate in the development of autonomous driving technology. In April, it was revealed that the Autobahn is developing a Level 4 self-driving car that allows autonomous driving without driver intervention. They plan to launch autonomous vehicles in 2024.
This technology not only has an autobahn driving, but also has an automatic parking function, but the driver must be on board just in case. For reference, fully autonomous driving is Level 5.
The two companies are said to be conducting development through exchanges between 1,200 autonomous driving development engineers based on the two autonomous driving test centers equipped by Daimler and the BMW autonomous driving campus near Munich. BMW says it is focusing on building a joint data center for data storage and processing and software development in driving assistance systems including sensors.
BMW is developing self-driving technology in urban areas with Mercedes and Bosch, which aim to realize Level 3 autonomous driving by 2021. The two companies plan to negotiate a partnership not only for the sale of Level 4 autobahn cars, but also for urban robot taxis. Related information can be found here .