Autonomous driving: BMW and Baidu end partnership

D he Chinese Google competitor Baidu and the Bavarian automaker BMW are no longer working together on the development of autonomous cars. The reason for the separation are different ideas about the development of autonomous cars. BMW is planning an autonomous car for 2021, Baidu plans to start small series as early as 2018. Baidu is now looking for another global research partner. In the USA, the Chinese are already working with Ford.

However, both companies do not want to end the cooperation entirely. The Bavarians do not want to forego the use of high-precision maps from the Chinese in the future either. BMW is already working with the US chip manufacturer Intel and the Israeli camera technology specialists from MobilEye on the development of its autonomously driving models. Fully autonomous driving should be possible by 2021. The development should take place in stages.