BMW China Automotive Trading Ltd. and Tencent have signed an agreement to work together on building the BMW Group China High Performance D³ platform. The BMW Group said in a statement that it will use the platform to develop automated driving technologies and products that suit complex local traffic conditions and meet local customer demands.
Tencent will provide IT architecture, tools, and platforms across the field of automated driving research and development.
Alejandro Vukotich, senior vice president of automated driving at BMW, said, “Our ultimate goal is to make the car safer than the human driver through greater automation. Safety is paramount to us. We therefore need to process a lot of data for simulation, testing, and validation. The launch of the D³ – Data-Driven Development – platform in China is the next big step for us along this path.”
Moreover, “China is at the forefront of automated driving development, and we aim to play a pioneering role in this area,” said Jochen Goller, the president and chief executive officer of BMW Group Region China. “The collaboration between BMW Group and Tencent will set the benchmark for cross-industry cooperation. The BMW Group China High Performance D³ platform will allow us to develop autonomous driving solutions that represent a better fit for the specific driving scenarios in China.”
“Tencent is committed to assisting automotive companies in the digital transformation,” added Dowson Tong, president of Tencent Cloud & Smart Industry. “The collaboration between Tencent and BMW Group has deepened over the past year or so, which proves BMW's recognition of Tencent's technical strength in the fields of cloud computing, big data, security, and AI. We hope that with the continuous deepening of cooperation between the two parties, we can create a new model and a new benchmark for cooperation between Chinese technology companies and international automotive companies. We also look forward to providing more assistance to the localization of international first-class automotive companies in China.”
According to BMW, the BMW Group China High Performance D³ platform should be set up and ready to begin operations by the end of this year. The “D³” in the new IT platform's name stands for Data-Driven Development, which forms the basis for the development of Level 3 and Level 4 automated driving functions, BMW said.
BMW added that before the BMW Group commences series production of Level 3 vehicles in 2021, the platform will be used mainly for safety validation of Level 3 and the early-stage study of Level 4 technologies. After 2021, the platform will assist both the post-production development of Level 3 models and research into Level 4 technologies, according to BMW.
Victoria Spears
Victoria Prussen Spears is senior vice president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Brooklyn Law School, Ms. Spears was an attorney at a leading New York City law firm before joining Meyerowitz Communications. She may be contacted at [email protected].