Yahoo Autos BMW and Mercedes-Benz Will Stop Fighting and Join Forces to Make a Better Autonomous Car
The two German giants will share their hardware, software, and R&D in a rare moment of cooperation.
Other automakers may join the partnership.
Both automakers want to sell fully automated vehicles by the mid-2020s, but this doesn't mean they'll simply merge the Mercedes-Benz F 015 and BMW Vision Next 100 concepts from 2015 and 2016 (pictured above) into a single product.
From this day forward, BMW and Mercedes-Benz will not badger each other in public or trade insults like "that taxicab company" or "Baby Mercedes wannabe," at least not when it comes to automated vehicles. The German rivals have agreed to cooperate on hardware and software development that is intended to bear the fruit of fully autonomous cars within six years.
The goal, according to a memorandum signed by BMW CEO Klaus Fröhlich and Daimler CEO Ola Källenius, is to put as many of these cars on the road as possible as quickly as possible. The BMW Vision iNext is already scheduled for sale in Europe by 2021 with SAE Level 3 automation. Mercedes is readying this system for the 2020 S-class and will launch a pilot test of Level 4 automated cars in San Jose, California, later this year. Both automakers, in a rare moment of humility, now admit they can't refine the technology at such a rapid pace and to the point of Level 4 and 5 automation-where the industry imagines there will be no drivers-without a joint effort. The automakers said they will also consider partnering with more automakers and tech companies.
These efforts won't involve the sharing of body platforms, powertrains, or anything else on the cars aside from sensors and software. The Mercedes-Benz F 015 and BMW Vision Next 100 concepts from 2015 and 2016 (pictured above) will not suddenly merge into a single blob. This is not a complete tie-up in the way BMW and Toyota have linked arms in two-seat, rear-wheel-drive sports cars. Manufacturing and sales are expected to remain as fiercely independent as they are today. Brand loyalists on both sides who don't like to drive in traffic-and the future babies of Benz and Bimmer owners who, perhaps, won't drive at all-stand to benefit.
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