For a few years now, cooperation within the automotive industry has been increasing. Now leading companies of the German car industry are considering working together on the topic of autonomous driving.
Existing cooperations
As the development of autonomous driving is not only expensive, but also requires certain competencies, a number of coollaborations have already formed. BMW, for example, has rallied a whole group of companies around itself to start development in this field. Mercedes-Benz and Bosch also intensified their cooperation in this topic. Volkswagen recently decided to cooperate with the US manufacturer Ford in search of cooperation partners. Shortly afterwards, the two manufacturers BMW and Mercedes-Benz announced similar plans. But now a new concept is being discussed.
German automotive industry together
Initiated by Volkswagen and BMW, a cooperation at a higher level is now being discussed. This would not only include Volkswagen and BMW two manufacturers, but also Daimler and the suppliers Continental and Bosch who would join forces in the development of autonomous driving.
Negotiations have already started and will continue until March. If such an alliance were to develop, it would certainly have greater clout and could make the technology available more quickly. The primary issue, however, is the synergies that could be created. If the companies would no longer work on the topic individually but in collaboration, this would first and foremost save money on research.
The development of autonomous driving could then certainly proceed faster, which would also accelerate the vision zero (no more road fatalities). But the main goal is to cope with the fast changes in the industry. This has already lead the two manufacturers BMW and Mercedes-Benz to unite their mobility sectors under the name Jurbey. The company’s headquarters will be in Berlin.
Whereas companies in Germany are still working on the technology, the Google sister Waymo is already on the market. Since December, there has been a commercial robotic taxi service in the US state of Arizona. Though Waymo has no competence in the vehicle sector, it has been able to invest enormous sums of money and can boast excellent software competence, which is also of enormous importance for autonomous driving.
About the author:
David Flora is journalist and owner of the digital magazine “Autonomes Fahren & Co”. He is reporting regularly about trends and technologies in the fields Autonomous Driving, HMI, Telematics and Robotics. Link to his site: http://www.autonomes-fahren.de