BMW to offer fully autonomous cars by 2021

BMW has announced that it will collaborate with Intel and Mobileye to help rapidly introduce vehicles with full self-driving capability by 2021. The German car is plotting the move to introduce technology that, it claims, will "change lives and societies for the better".

Collaborating together under the BMW iNEXT banner, all three companies say they will rapidly evolve current self-driving technology to such an extent that in 2021 the German car-maker's vehicles will be able to navigate fully autonomously on highways and in trickier urban environments too.

BMW said these driverless vehicles will also provide the basis for future ride sharing cars.

Working with Intel and Mobileye - experts in computer vision and processing technology - BMW says the future fully autonomous vehicles will be safer and easier compared with today's vehicles.

A new Highly Automated Driving (HAD) prototype vehicle is already in the works and will begin testing the three companies' all-new autonomous driving aids as soon as next year.

Instead of developing fully-autonomous cars straight away, the three firm's say they will take a step-by-step approach.

The first will be to develop a car that you can take your hands off the wheel and your eyes off the road.

The next stage in the journey to driverless cars will be the development of a vehicle that requires no human supervision.

The third and final stage in BMW's autonomous car master plan is to create a vehicle that can function and drive without the need for a driver inside the vehicle. Only then will BMW be able to realise its dream of creating self-driving fleets for car sharing schemes.

To accomplish this, Intel was needed to develop microchips with huge processing power to deal with calculations involved with handling massive amounts of data generated from the HAD prototype's cameras, lasers, radars and various sensors.

The input from these sensors are interpolated and are used to constant mapping and respond to the world around them - no mean feat.

Mobileye was drafted in because of its Road Experience Management (REM) tech that provides some of the most advanced technology needed to support the next-generation of fully autonomous driving.

Speaking following the announcement of the new partnership, BMW Group's chairman, Harald Kruger said: "The combined expertise of Intel, Mobileye and the BMW Group will deliver the next core building block to bring fully automated driving technology to the street."

Do you think the average motorist will be cruising along in fully autonomous vehicles by 2021 as BMW predicts? Have your say in the comments section below.