Fiat Chrysler joins BMW for autonomous cars

The automotive sports grounds have been full of companies picking their teams for the self-driving car development race and, finally, someone chose Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

The Italian-American car-maker has announced it has signed on to BMW’s team, which also includes such technology luminaries as Mobileye and Intel.

FCA has not just signed on with the Bavarian car-maker and Israeli and US tech firms, though, because automotive supplier Delphi and German supplier Continental are also part of the collaborative effort to have self-driving cars on sale by 2021.

Intel liked Mobileye’s autonomous development plans so much it bought the Israeli company this year. Together, they’re responsible for developing the collaboration’s computer platform, while BMW has been charged with the control software and integration.

It plans to deliver both Level 3 and Level 4 autonomous driving by 2021, with fully autonomous Level 5 to follow, which suits FCA because it has desperately been trying to hook up with a self-driving development partner for nearly two years.

FCA has long been considered to be have the weakest technology resources out of the world’s top 10 car-makers, especially with CEO Sergio Marchionne preparing it for sale, so the move could give it the leg-up it desperately needs.

"In order to advance autonomous driving technology, it is vital to form partnerships among automakers, technology providers and suppliers," a statement from Marchionne said.

“Joining this cooperation will enable FCA to directly benefit from the synergies and economies of scale that are possible when companies come together with a common vision and objective.”

FCA already has its own electronics technology company, Magneti Marelli, though there has been no statement made about its future or its involvement in the collaboration.

The collaboration between BMW, Intel and Mobileye dates back to July last year and it plans to have 40 Level 5 development prototypes on the world’s roads by the end of this year.

It already has a fleet of more than 100 Level 4 cars testing around the world and while it is heavily skewed towards BMW, its end goal was always to deliver a universally available platform.

There has been no mention of how many development ‘mules’ FCA would contribute.

“The two factors that remain key to the success of the cooperation are uncompromising excellence in development, and the scalability of our autonomous driving platform,” BMW Group Board of Management Chairman, Harald Krüger, said.

“With FCA as our new partner, we reinforce our path to successfully create the most relevant state-of-the-art, cross-OEM Level 3-5 solution on a global scale.”

FCA is hoping to benefit from those economies of scale, Marchionne said, though it’s not its first dalliance with autonomous development consortiums.

It partnered last December with Google’s Waymo operation by delivering 100 Chrysler Pacifica MPVs for use in its test fleet, though it has never before expressed an interest in being involved in its own right.

FCA simply delivered Waymo a fleet of Pacificas with bespoke wiring harnesses and has no access to the fleet data and no ability to reap after-sales revenue.

“We welcome FCA’s contributions and use of the cooperation’s platform, which has made substantial progress over the last year and is rapidly entering the testing and execution phase,” Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Mobileye, Professor Amnon Shashua, said.

“The combination of vision-intense perception and mapping, differentiated sensor fusion, and driving policy solutions offers the highest levels of safety and versatility, in a cost-efficient package that will scale across all geographies and road settings.”

The BMW-Mobileye-Intel team will help FCA considerably more than the Waymo arrangement, as it gives the company access to all the intellectual property and all the data from every test and development mule.

BMW’s traditional German premium rival, Daimler, has gone its own way, partnering with fellow Stuttgart company Bosch to create self-driving cars.