When the 7 Series G70 entered production in July 2022 at the Dingolfing site, BMW premiered an automated driving pilot program. The fullsize luxury sedan has been driving itself from the assembly line ever since, without someone behind the wheel. It s part of an operation called automatisiertes Fahren im Werk (AFW) or automated driving in the factory.” The freshly built vehicles cover a pre-determined route. The smaller 5 Series G60 goes through the same ritual.
Now, BMW is expanding the program to the Leipzig factory. Around 90% of all cars made there (including the MINI Countryman) will operate fully autonomously. The vehicles will cover a route of more than 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) that starts at the two assembly halls. Their first stop is at a short test course before arriving at the finishing area all without a human driver.
The pilot program has now evolved into a series operation, known as Automated Driving In-Plant. It ll also be implemented at BMW s Regensburg factory and MINI s Oxford site in 2025. Once the next-generation iX3 starts rolling off the assembly line in Debrecen, the Hungarian factory will also adopt the program. The next step is to improve the autonomous driving tech so that cars will even leave the factory to reach an external distribution area.
But how is this all possible? BMW scattered sensors scattered all over the routes. It goes as far as to say it has created the biggest LIDAR (light detection and ranging) infrastructure in Europe. An externally generated environment model handles the process. It doesn t even matter what sort of equipment the customer has ordered for that car.
It s easy to imagine how this technology improves logistics at BMW s production sites, improving efficiency. The plan is to expand the Automated Driving In-Plant at other factories around the world in the years to come.
Source: BMW
First published by https://www.bmwblog.com