Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will
join BMW, Intel and Intel unit Mobileye in developing a
technological platform for self-driving cars, FCA said
Wednesday.
The collaboration is in line with a previously stated goal of
"putting on the road 40 autonomous experimental vehicles by the
end of 2017".
FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne said the partnership was
"fundamental" to the development of self-driving cars.
In a statement, FCA said:
"BMW Group, Intel and Mobileye announced today that they have
signed a memorandum of understanding with the intention for Fiat
Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) to be the first automaker to join
them in developing a world leading, state-of-the-art autonomous
driving platform for global deployment.
"The development partners intend to leverage each other's
individual strengths, capabilities and resources to enhance the
platform's technology, increase development efficiency and
reduce time to market.
"One enabler to achieve this will be the co-location of
engineers in Germany as well as other locations. FCA will bring
engineering and other technical resources and expertise to the
cooperation, as well as its significant sales volumes,
geographic reach and long-time experience in North America.
""In order to advance autonomous driving technology, it is
vital to form partnerships among automakers, technology
providers and suppliers," said FCA Chief Executive Officer
Sergio Marchionne.
"Joining this cooperation will enable FCA to directly benefit
from the synergies and economies of scale that are possible when
companies come together with a common vision and objective."
In July 2016, BMW Group, Intel, and Mobileye announced that
they were joining forces to make self-driving vehicles a reality
by collaborating to bring solutions for highly automated driving
(Level 3) and fully automated driving (Level 4/5) into
production by 2021.
Since then, they have been designing and developing a
scalable architecture that can be used by multiple automakers
around the world, while at the same time maintaining each
automaker's unique brand identities.
The cooperation remains on-track to deploy 40 autonomous test
vehicles on the road by 2017 year-end.
It also expects to benefit from leveraging data and learnings
from the recently announced 100 Level 4 test vehicle fleet of
Mobileye, an Intel Company, demonstrating the scale effect of
this collaborative approach.
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