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The BMW Group Autonomous Driving Campus: The first 450 days

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Six questions to Elmar Frickenstein, Senior Vice President Automated Driving and Driver Assistance, BMW AG.

In September 2017, you and your team moved to the Autonomous Driving Campus in Unterschleissheim.
What prompted the BMW Group’s decision to create this new site?

We are currently experiencing the largest paradigm shift in the history of the automotive industry. The industry is set to witness more change in the next decade than in the past 30 years. Today, we are already on the brink of highly automated driving.

[Read more…] about The BMW Group Autonomous Driving Campus: The first 450 days

BMW to showcase ‘Vision iNext’ at CES

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At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the BMW Group is showcasing the future of driving pleasure with visitors having their first chance to take a virtual drive in the BMW Vision iNEXT, accompanied by the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant.

The vision vehicle is being displayed alongside a sophisticated mixed-reality installation that, for the first time, provides a virtual and immersive impression of what it is like to drive autonomously, emission-free, and fully connected in the BMW Vision iNEXT.

To begin the simulation, the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant suggests an agenda for the day and plans the activities for the trip.

[Read more…] about BMW to showcase ‘Vision iNext’ at CES

BMW Group makes a million 3D-printed components in 10 years

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At the BMW Group, the use of 3D-printed components is on the rise.

Over the last decade alone, the company produced a million parts by this innovative method, and this year output from the BMW Group Additive Manufacturing Center is expected to reach over 200,000 components — a 42 percent increase on last year’s total.

Dr. Jens Ertel, Director of the BMW Group Additive Manufacturing Center: “The use of components made by additive manufacturing in series production of vehicles is increasing particularly strongly at the moment.

[Read more…] about BMW Group makes a million 3D-printed components in 10 years

BMW Group uses virtual reality to design future production workstations

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Virtual reality is increasingly finding use in BMW Group production. A few months before production of the new BMW 3 Series ramped up in Munich, BMW Group planners have completely laid out individual workstations in a virtual world.

This includes cockpit preassembly, for example, where the cockpit is put together before being installed in the vehicle.

For the first time, building, systems, logistics and assembly planners, together with production employees, were able to assess the whole of the new production area in virtual reality and test new procedures in 3D.

[Read more…] about BMW Group uses virtual reality to design future production workstations

BMW Group enlists software development partners for autonomous driving

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The BMW Group has selected software development partners KPIT and TTTech to press ahead with the scalable Autonomous Driving Platform and to work together on the development of Level 3 and Level 4/5 functions (Highway Pilot and Urban Pilot).

This move bolsters the BMW Group’s development resources for automated driving and represents another step forward in its quest to expand the platform’s ecosystem and establish the technology in the automotive industry.

KPIT and TTTech will be well positioned to help roll out the software stack within the Autonomous Driving Platform to third parties. This will make it easier to integrate other OEMs and begin offering scalable software solutions across the industry.

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BMW and Daimler plan to headquarter joint mobility company in Berlin

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The BMW Group and Daimler AG plan to locate the headquarters of their proposed global mobility company in Berlin.

The two partners are purposely seeking to establish this innovative mobility services provider outside of their respective Group structures in Germany’s capital city.

They plan to combine and strategically expand their existing on-demand mobility offering in the areas of CarSharing, Ride-Hailing, Parking, Charging and Multimodality.

[Read more…] about BMW and Daimler plan to headquarter joint mobility company in Berlin

BMW to build entire future around iNext autonomous electric concept

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At the BMW AG Annual General Meeting in May 2018, Harald Krüger, Chairman of the Board of Management at the BMW Group, described iNext as follows: “The iNext project will provide our building blocks for the future, from which the entire company and all of its brands are set to benefit.”

iNext addresses the big question that is at the heart of the BMW Group’s day-to-day work: “How will we be moving around in future?” iNext builds on the idea that first took shape in 2007 with “project i” and evolved into the launch of the BMW i3 in 2013.

The BMW Group has already achieved a great deal on this front: it now has over ten years of experience with electric mobility under its belt in both small-scale and large-scale production, the BMW i models are being improved all the time, and their technology is being employed to gradually electrify models from the BMW and MINI ranges.

[Read more…] about BMW to build entire future around iNext autonomous electric concept

You too can pretend to be David Hasselhoff and talk to your car

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It’s taken more than 30 years, but carmakers are finally giving us all a chance to pretend to be David Hasselhoff in the Knight Rider television show from the 1980s. 

Hasselhoff, it could be argued, played supporting actor to star of the show – a car called “Kitt”, short for Knight Industries Two Thousand.

Kitt, which was actually a Trans-Am in real life, could talk and hold conversations with Hasselhoff’s character, as well as drive itself, and thwart a variety of bad guys at the same time every week.  [Read more…] about You too can pretend to be David Hasselhoff and talk to your car

BMW building ‘world’s most advanced’ driving simulation facility in Munich

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German auto giant BMW says it is building “the world’s most advanced” driving simulation centre in Munich.

The company says the facility is “the most advanced of its kind” and provides “unique possibilities for development of autonomous driving systems”.

The construction of the centre begins as part of BMW’s so-called “FIZ Future” masterplan, and completion is scheduled for 2020.  [Read more…] about BMW building ‘world’s most advanced’ driving simulation facility in Munich

A ‘flying sculpture’ of 300 drones

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Studio Drift has presented “Franchise Freedom” for the first time in Europe, following a successful premiere at Art Basel in Miami Beach last year, developed in collaboration with BMW.

A flying sculpture of 300 luminous Intel Shooting Star drones in bird swarming formation will be on view for three days after sunset, from August 10-12, 2018.

Illuminating the river IJ in Amsterdam, the performative artwork is part of the retrospective “Studio Drift: Coded Nature”, on display at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam until August 26, 2018.  [Read more…] about A ‘flying sculpture’ of 300 drones