BMW and Mobileye today announced that they have signed an agreement introducing Mobileye’s Road Experience Management data generation technology in newly developed BMW Group models entering the market in 2018. This agreement to crowd-source real-time data using vehicles equipped with camera-based Advanced Driver Assist System (ADAS) technology is a critical enabler for autonomous driving through next-generation high definition (HD) maps aimed at making driving safer and more efficient for consumers.
The REM system developed by Mobileye can provide information like road hazards, traffic delays, weather information and parking availability, store it in the cloud and and then make available to enter fleets, giving them a way to supplement pre-existing static HD maps with to-the-minute info from real-world driving.
The partnership involves not only BMW and Israeli tech company Mobileye, but HERE mapping services and Intel in an effort aimed at bringing highly automated driving to the streets by 2021. By then, BMW expects to be in position to roll out its iNext autonomous vehicle.
The goal is to source data from a range of different vehicle manufacturers, in order to more quickly and accurately build anonymized real-time mapping data that can serve to inform autonomous driving systems more generally, which should in theory lead to safer roads.
“This announcement demonstrates that our partnership is rapidly bringing innovation to market to allow customers to benefit from the latest technology,” said Klaus Fröhlich, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Development. “At a strategic level, this announcement makes it clear how our cooperation with Mobileye leverages our investment stake in HERE. The data of future BMW vehicles will enrich the quality of maps and services for everyone. Furthermore, this represents a significant step towards introducing the BMW iNEXT with its features of highly automated driving in 2021 as well as creating a leading ecosystem around HERE’s Open Location Platform leveraged by swarm data from millions of vehicles across the world.”
“We welcome the opportunity to take this next step in our relationship with BMW Group,” stated Professor Amnon Shashua, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of Mobileye. “Camera-based ADAS systems are already making the roads safer. Global RoadBook is an initiative to utilize data from these cameras to create the high-definition maps required to make the next generation of autonomous driving a reality, in an inclusive way which will create an industry standard.”
