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-   -   FCA joins BMW Intel & Mobileye to develop autonomous cars (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/international-automotive-scene/189531-fca-joins-bmw-intel-mobileye-develop-autonomous-cars.html)

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with BMW, Intel Corporation and Mobileye, an Intel company to jointly develop an autonomous driving platform. The companies have also invited other automakers and technology suppliers to join them in developing this autonomous platform.



BMW, Intel and Mobileye came together in July 2016 to collaborate and provide solutions so that highly automated driving (level 3) and fully automated driving (level 4/5) can be brought into production by 2021. The plan is to develop a scalable platform that could be used by multiple automakers without having to sacrifice their individual brand identities. FCA is the first automaker to join the trio.
The parties involved hope that the collaboration will help enhance the platform's technology, increase development efficiency and reduce time to market. FCA's geographic reach and experience of the North American market will prove beneficial. FCA will also add its engineering and technical resources into building this new platform.

The companies in the collaboration aim to have 40 autonomous test vehicles on the road by the end of this year.

"The Ultimate SELF Driving Machine" then? :D

Jokes apart, the future is indeed arriving fast and good to see the smaller companies consolidating resources to prepare for it.

When we hit the brake pedal, we trust that the system will work as promised and stop or slow down the car. I wonder if we will ever trust a little button to work as advertised and steer the car through roads.

Good move I would say.

FCA is far away in their Autonomous strategy. Currently being around level 2 Autonomy, only the basics are being covered which are really like baby steps when compared with the industry peers. Heck, even Volvo is far ahead at Level 3 complete.

Using the Waymo agreement, FCA is learning from Googles Self Driving Software and Hardware suite. Eventually all of this software/hardware has to be baked into the DNA of FCA cars. At this point in time, thats still WIP. But then, this is much the same with many.

Honda for example is currently having 3rd party evaluations of its competition cars. But here again, they are evaluating for Level 2. It is expected that they too will rely on the partnership with Waymo to evaluate Level 4 using their software/hardware suite.

Exciting to see all this unravel.

Indeed, it's good to see the smaller guys collaborate like this as, individually, they simply don't have the money or resources of companies like Toyota, Mercedes etc. Most relevant to India is the Toyota-Suzuki partnership which is basically a tech transfer from the big guy to the tiny one.

Am also glad that companies like Google are developing self-driving tech. They'll make it more accessible + keep the giants on their toes.

We're going to see a lot more such partnerships & tie-ups...even in the area of fuel (electric, hydrogen / fuel cell).