BMW strives to automate driving

BMW has come closer to producing a fully automated vehicle that can brake, accelerate and pass other vehicles on its own.  BMW’s Dr. Nico Kämpchen, Project Manager of Highly Automated Driving at BMW and his team has competed 5000km in the vehicle so far.

The next step for BMW’s engineers is to develop advanced driver assistance systems for the motorway. They have equipped a 5 series with advanced vision and environment detection systems. When activated the system can autonomously control acceleration and braking and pass slower vehicle. It can also react to vehicles joining the motorway, and can even change lanes to give merging vehicles adequate space.

These technologies will continue to be developed and some will even be available on the new BMW i3. As a mainly urban vehicle the i3 will be equipped with Park Assist and Traffic Jam Assistant. Traffic Jam Assistant will be available at speeds of up to 40 km/h as long as the driver keeps at least one hand on the steering wheel.

Nico Kämpchen says the next major step for the team is teaching their prototype to deal with construction sites and motorway junctions, which are full of alien forms.