BMW To Compete With Google To Build Software For Self-Driving Cars (reuters.com)

SmartAboutThings writes: Google is about to get some serious competition in the self-driving car race from none other than BMW, one of the most prominent names in the car industry. Speaking to Reuters, BMW's Head of Research and Development, Klaus Frohlich, said the following while present at the Geneva Motor Show: "For me it is a core competence to have the most intelligent car. Our task is to preserve our business model without surrendering it to an internet player. Otherwise we will end up as the Foxconn for a company like Apple, delivering only the metal bodies for them." BMW believes its competitors in the future will include internet taxi service Uber and sales website TrueCar. As the company is approaching its 100th birthday, the company is now on a quest to build the "ultimate driving machine." The company is preparing for a world in which its customers will be mere passengers, and the cars will do the driving themselves.

Comments

What makes them think they can deliver?

[mysidia]

Google is about to get some serious competition in the self-driving car race from none other than BMW

Google has been working on this AI problem since probably 2008 or so and been road-testing self-driving cars since 2011. As far as I know BMW has no development at all on this concept.

What makes BMW think they have some great insight into the artificial intelligence problem, that will make it possible for them to emerge as a serious autonomous vehicle competitor today, if Google is already 5 years ahead in learning and development of the software, data collection, and STILL does not believe their fully autonomous vehicle can be fully productized until 2020?

Even Tesla has a head start on BMW.

Autonomous driving is not a simple solved problem. It's not like you can just slap a clone together and have it out within a year or something....

Research and development is an extremely long process, there, and as far as I know BMW's R and D is focused on building cars.... they probably don't have people who even know about robotics, let-alone AI for the self-driving problem.

Re:What makes them think they can deliver?

[0100010001010011]

The German companies do it a bit different than American companies, they pool resources for the common R&D good. It's why they had stuff like CAN bus while Ford and GM were all developing their own unique busses.

BMW, VW and Benz all have a lot of research into this. I sat in on a grad seminar given by VW engineers back in 2010 on lane change obstacle avoidance. They certainly have the IP already, even if they aren't announcing it state side. They even have ISO standards for how to test obstacle avoidance: ISO 3888-2:2011 defines the dimensions of the test track for a closed-loop, severe lane-change manoeuvre test for subjectively determining the obstacle avoidance performance of a vehicle, one specific part of vehicle dynamics and road-holding ability. It is applicable to passenger cars as defined in ISO 3833 and light commercial vehicles up to a gross vehicle mass of 3,5 t.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

I had a BMW and Benz rental in 2012 that had the auto stop feature that is just now starting to show up in American cars. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/v...

If there is any group of car companies that is going to give you autonomous driving with manual over ride it's going to be the German ones. German drivers also have a different mentality towards driving. Driving falls into two categories, either you have to do it and you can automate it or you want to do it and you don't want to automate it. I would say of my driving there's a good 80/20 split. 80% of the time I'd like the car to just get me somewhere but 20% of the time I do want an autobahn experience.

Just because you don't think BMW hasn't done any research into self driving cars doesn't mean they haven't. It is an incredibly long process and Germans have had an ISO standard for testing it since 2011 as well. The TÜV doesn't mess around when it comes to safety or testing and I trust anything they verify much more than the DOT.

They probably can't deliver

[ErikTheRed]

I say this as somebody who owns and loves BMWs... they suck ass at software. They can't even get things like their console information / entertainment system to be reasonably bug-free, so how the hell do they think they can actually do difficult and important stuff?

Re:They probably can't deliver

[drinkypoo]

BMW does quite well with car control software (e.g., the all-wheel drive anti-slip software).

They don't do that without help. They don't make the hardware that handles that stuff — just like Audi and Daimler, they buy all of that stuff from Bosch. They also don't write the software, they only make customizations to it and even that is assisted by Bosch engineers. Or in the case of transmissions, ZF engineers. Nearly all German cars are based around a ZF transmission. Then again, it often seems like practically all cars worldwide are using a ZF transmission now — they make the 8- and 9-speed automatics that everyone and their mom is putting into a car now. Automakers are still making their own small manual transmissions in some cases, but almost nobody seems to be making their own automatic that isn't a CVT. A handful of automakers do that. Honda famously makes their own automatic transmissions, which infamously suck. Ford, too. Transmission shop owners love Ford to little bitty pieces. GM seems to be using the ZF8 and ZF9 now...

Naw, BMW will add some more cool features...

[Anonymous Coward]

BMW will add some cool features that the GCars won't have:

1: A weighting for their e-cars to slide into narrow gaps between cars in traffic, then panic stop.
2: No turn signals.
3: Auto detection of parking line spaces, and automatic parking to take up as many as possible.
4: A middle finger sign that pops out, when a lane change is successfully executed.
5: e-Ink on the sides of the vehicle to mimic being keyed by unhappy people after #1-4 are done.

time to put the BMW mystique to rest . . .

[swell]

"...delivering only the metal bodies for them."

No, they won't even be doing that- Google & Uber will not want their metal body or their programming expertise. The mystique of the quality German car quickly evaporates when you own one or crunch the numbers on the cost of purchase, maintenance, parts and accessories.

I'm on my third BMW motorcycle; each new purchase 20+ years after the previous. During that time I've owned a couple dozen other motorcycles. Like the Harley, BMW motorcycles have made only minor changes over the last 100 years, and like the Harley they still can't get it right. Meanwhile the Japanese can snap their fingers and come up with a totally new design that is almost flawless and it's relatively affordable.

It's not just motorcycles; Consumer Reports can't find a single excellent car in the 2015 BMW lineup. It's sad, I'd love to own a vehicle that actually lived up to such a reputation but they don't seem to come from Europe or America.

Re:Great.

[PopeRatzo]

BMW drivers are insufferable enough now.

Yes, I was also wondering if BMW self-driving cars would also drive like assholes.

I can't wait

[golgotha007]

for driverless cars to become popular. I'll be able to take advantage of their dialed-up safety protocols and be able to cut my way through traffic faster with less risk.

Re:Great.

[PopeRatzo]

Actually, as an avid cyclist, I can tell you there are worse cars for harboring asshole drivers.

And as an avid driver, I can tell you that avid cyclists are the biggest assholes on the road, by far. It's not even close.