BMW and Tencent unite in development center for autonomous cars

BMW is joining Tencent to open a technology development center for autonomous vehicles. The unit is due to open later this year in Tianjin, a city in eastern China, and will serve as a focal point for cloud computing infrastructure, supporting data analysis and systems production that will eventually lead to autopilot platforms.

The companies did not disclose the value of the investment, but they talked a lot about the idea. BMW plans to embrace Tencent's expertise in the technology market, from cloud computing and Big Data, to primarily perform data analysis. In a gigantic market with chaotic traffic like the Chinese, the existence of an infrastructure that allows this kind of work in real time becomes essential, with the Tianjin unit being seen as one of the focal points of the automaker in its freelance car business.

The forecast, too, is quite palpable. With the work of the development center, BMW intends to put its first semi-automotive vehicles on the streets of China as early as 2021. The cars, initially, would be of the L3 classification, which still requires the presence of a human driver to take control in case of "Critical situations". However, under such conditions, he assumes only a supervisory role, not having to be at all times with his hands at the wheel, for example, only intervening if necessary.

China, of course, serves as a pilot project for the entire BMW initiative with vehicles traveling alone, with the experience gained in the Asian market also serving to launch similar projects in other cities. On the other hand, the work dedicated to the country also results in an expectation of reaching level 4 of autonomy quickly after the release of category L3 vehicles, representing another step forward for the technology.

BMW has a similar data center and cloud computing center in Munich, Germany, where it also has its headquarters. The unit was inaugurated earlier this year and also encourages preliminary work on the release of semi-automotive vehicles on the streets of the country, something that should also happen in a few years.