- New BMW and Mini fashions are rolling off the meeting strains without human drivers behind the wheel.
- The BMW Group is increasing its Automated Driving In-Plant system to extra factories in Europe.
1000’s brand-new BMWs are rolling off the meeting strains on a daily basis and not using a driver behind the wheel.
That’s a result of the German luxurious automaker having absolutely carried out an autonomous driving system that enables completed automobiles to drive themselves on a predefined course contained in the manufacturing unit.
The system, referred to as Automated Driving In-Plant (AFW), debuted as a pilot program in 2022 at BMW’s largest European manufacturing unit in Dingolfing. Now, nonetheless, the system has advanced and is prepared for sequence manufacturing responsibility, in response to the German carmaker.
Initially, the autonomous driving setup was used on the most recent era i5 and i7 electrical sedans assembled in Dingolfing, however now that the system is prepared for prime time, different BMW fashions, in addition to the brand new Mini Countryman, will likely be ferried across the manufacturing unit and not using a driver behind the wheel.
Along with the Dingolfing manufacturing unit, the corporation is implementing the system at its Leipzig manufacturing unit the place around 90% of the fashions assembled will likely be pushed autonomously off the meeting line. After Leipzig, the Regensburg plant in Germany and the Oxford manufacturing unit in the UK may even get AFW in subsequent yr. The brand new Hungarian manufacturing unit in Debrecen that may construct the next-generation iX3 electrical crossover is subsequently in line to get the self-driving tech.
BMW
On the principal Dingolfing website, freshly assembled automobiles drive without anybody behind the steering wheel alongside a route of greater than 0.62 miles (1 kilometre. The automobiles start their autonomous drive from the 2 meeting halls, undergo a “quick check course” and arrive at the ending space inside the identical facility.
“Over the following ten years, we’ll log several million check kilometres with Automated Driving In-Plant in our manufacturing community alone,” mentioned Milan Nedeljković, member of the Board of Administration of BMW AG chargeable for Manufacturing. “On this means, the BMW Group is as soon as once more setting a brand new benchmark for automation and digitalization of its manufacturing processes – whereas paving the best way for future functions within the discipline of autonomous driving.”
The Automated Driving In-Plant system makes use of a sequence of sensors put in alongside the route and depends on an externally generated surroundings mannequin, in addition to an exterior motion planner. BMW says the system is the most important Lidar infrastructure in Europe and that the next step is to introduce it to different areas of manufacturing, like driving by extra testing zones and door distribution areas.
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