(Bloomberg) -- BMW AG will dispatch a fleet of autonomousvehicles to U.S. and European cities in this year’s second half,the next step in its partnership with Mobileye NVand Intel Corp. to introduce fully self-driving vehiclesby 2021.

The German automaker will put 40 of its 7-Series sedans on theroad and train them to drive in urban areas, Klaus Froehlich, BMW’shead of development, said in an interview. The goal is to apply thegathered data toward producing the iNext, which will supplant the7-Series as the BMW brand’s flagship model and be capable of fullautonomy four years from now.

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Automakers and technology companies are rushing to formpartnerships to compete against the likes of Alphabet Inc.’sGoogle, which has clocked 2 million self-driving miles on publicroads, and Tesla Motors Inc., with 1.3 billion miles of data fromAutopilot-equipped vehicles. BMW is appealing to other carmakers toadopt its approach to help shoulder research costs, speeddevelopment by sharing data and ensure they don’t becomealso-rans.

“Those who reach the finish line before you will have their techbecome the basis of standardization,” Amnon Shashua, Mobileye’sco-founder and chief technology officer, said in an interview.“This is why sharing is important.”

Enabling vehicles to navigate without human input through citiesrequires them to see and understand complex situations more likepeople do. Jerusalem-based Mobileye brings expertise incameras that model the surroundings while Santa Clara,California-based Intel wields computing capabilities to powerartificial intelligence. The companies released details Wednesdayin conjunction with CES 2017, the consumer-technology show in LasVegas.

Costly technologies

“At the beginning, I think only premium cars will be able to affordsuch technology — huge numbers of sensors in the car — soI think we will be the drivers anyway,” Froehlich said. “Ifeverybody would use the same network, it will be best.”

Carmakers could participate by buying sensors to install intheir cars, or go deeper with equipment that helps crowd-sourcedata from an autonomous-vehicle fleet, said Kathy Winter, vicepresident and general manager of Intel’s Automated DrivingDivision.

While Munich-based BMW’s main target is individual car owners,the technology will be available for ride-sharing fleets as well,Froehlich said. Auto manufacturers are pushing into so-calledmobility services like car-sharing and ride-hailing to counteralternatives to private vehicle ownership.

Partnerships form

BMW, which co-owns the DriveNow car-sharingventure with Sixt SE, will be jockeying for consumers’attention against the likes of Uber Technologies Inc., Ford MotorCo. and Volkswagen AG, among others. Google, which separated itsself-driving car project into a new unit called Waymo last month,plans to start a ride-sharing service using semi-autonomousminivans made by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV as soon as the end of2017. VW is rolling out Moia, a new division that will focus onride-sharing.

Revenue from car-sharing is projected to surge more thansevenfold to 4.7 billion euros ($4.9 billion) by 2021, according toa study by Boston Consulting Group Inc. Robo-taxis will make up 40percent of automotive profits by 2030, more than selling vehiclesto individuals, according to consulting company Roland Berger.

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