BMW Group, Intel and Mobileye announced today that they have signed a memorandum of understanding with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) to be the first automaker to join them in developing a new state-of-the-art autonomous driving platform for global deployment.
FCA will bring engineering, technical resources and expertise to the cooperation, as well as 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.”
The companies say the system will be used by automakers worldwide to run self-driving vehicles. It will be flexible so automakers can keep their unique brand identities.
The move is the latest in a series of acquisitions and partnerships announced by auto and technology companies as they race to deploy self-driving vehicles.
Fiat Chrysler also has a partnership to provide vehicles and install technology developed by Waymo, Google's autonomous car unit. A Fiat Chrysler spokeswoman says the partnership will continue.
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.
Computer chip maker Intel recently acquired Israel's Mobileye, a leader in software that integrates autonomous car sensors. BMW, Intel and Mobileye announced an autonomous vehicle partnership in 2016.
Financial details of the FCA-Intel-BMW deal weren't disclosed.
-Driven, AP