BMW Prepares for Real-Time Mapping

Exciting things are ahead for BMW in 2018. They will partner with Mobileye, the creators of high-tech collision-avoidance cameras and sensors. They will work together to gather data from its line of automobiles which will pave the way for real-time mapping in autonomous vehicles.

Driverless cars will be expected to constantly process information in a variety of areas and act upon it instantaneously. Weather, traffic, accident reporting, and parking are a few of these areas.

Beginning in 2018, BMWs will be equipped with Mobileye’s Road Experience Management to obtain information while cars are in motion and then transfer it to the “cloud” for processing. In turn, that data will be used to develop the high-definition mapping system, Global RoadBook, which is always being updated for drivers on the road. Volkswagen, General Motors, and Nissan already have similar partnerships on the horizon.

In order to bring this highly automated driving to the streets by 2021, the partnership will also include Here mapping services and Intel, in additional to Mobileye. BMW expects to debut its iNext autonomous vehicle at that time.

The BMW, Intel and Mobileye partnership was announced in January with plans to deploy approximately 40 autonomous BMW 7-Series cars in America and Europe in the later part of 2017.

“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,” said Amnon Shashua, chairman and chief technology officer of Mobileye.

Last year, Mobileye announced its EyeQ5 System-on-Chip technology, which is an integrated circuit that will be the centerpiece sensor for autonomous vehicles. Intel recently debuted its GO platform of processors to “provide the computer horsepower to perform a range of automated driving functions.”