Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is the first automaker to join BMW‘s existing partnership with Intel and Mobileye.
The four companies intend to leverage each other’s individual strengths, capabilities, and resources to enhance the autonomous driving platform’s technology while increasing development efficiency and reducing time to market. As the newest member of the group, FCA will bring engineering and other technical resources and expertise to the cooperation, as well as its significant sales volumes, geographic reach, and long-time experience in North America. It’s worth noting FCA has an existing partnership with Waymo, Google’s self-driving vehicle arm, and has a fleet of Chrysler Pacifica minivans equipped with self-driving tech.
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The original partnership between BMW, Intel, and Mobileye was first announced in July 2016, with the companies focusing on bringing solutions for highly automated driving (Level 3) and fully automated driving (Level 4/5) into production by 2021. The cooperation is still on track to deploy 40 autonomous test vehicles on the road by the end of 2017.
“In order to advance autonomous driving technology, it is vital to form partnerships among automakers, technology providers and suppliers,” said FCA Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne. “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.”
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