BMW and Mercedes cancel autonomous vehicle tech alliance

BMW and Mercedes-Benz have called quits on their partnership to develop autonomous driving aids little more than a year into the collaboration, citing the huge expense involved with developing the shared tech.

When the two German arch enemies announced they would join forces to pursue the development of self-driving vehicle technology back in 2019, it was viewed by the industry as a clever play by BMW and Benz to pool their resources to steal a march on their premium rivals and play catch-up to the market leaders.

Now, a joint statement stressed the cancellation of the technical partnership was both mutual and amicable, and would enable both companies to "concentrate on their existing development paths".

BMW and Mercedes also said in the statement that they could resume their collaboration at a later date.

Despite pulling the plug on their joint operation, both BMW and Mercedes will continue to work together in other areas including their 2015 alliance with Audi to develop mapping and navigation technology under the 'Here' banner.

BMW's and Mercedes' €1 billion car-sharing, electric vehicle charging and ride-hailing joint-venture is unaffected.

Helping explain why the recent alliance broke down, BMW and Mercedes said that both were unable to hold discussions with each other and suppliers to advance driverless tech.

No explanation has been given as to why, but the COVID-19 global pandemic is thought to be a contributing factor, especially when it comes to allocating the future investment involved.

“In these talks – and after extensive review – both sides concluded that, in view of the expense involved in creating a shared technology platform, as well as current business and economic conditions, the timing is not right for successful implementation of the co-operation.”

BMW development boss Klaus Fröhlich said the Bavarian brand will progress its autonomous driving program on its own.

“We have systematically further developed our technology and scalable platform with partners like Intel, Mobileye, FCA and Ansys," he said.

"Our current technology generation offers very strong, sustainable potential: with extremely powerful sensors and computing power, our robust modular system puts us in an excellent position to offer our customers what they need for many years.”

Meantime, Mercedes-Benz research and development boss Markus Schäfer said: “Our expertise complements that of the BMW Group very well, as our successful collaborations have proved. Next to decarbonisation, digitalization is a major strategic pillar for Mercedes-Benz.

"To prepare for the future challenges of a rapidly changing environment, we are currently also sounding out other possibilities with partners outside the automotive sector.”