Fiat-Chrysler, BMW and Intel collaboration announced

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, BMW Group and the Intel Corporation have reached an agreement to work together to develop self-driving vehicle technology. In July of 2016, BMW Group and Intel announced they were partnering to develop self-driving technologies, and yesterday the group announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to collaborate with Fiat Chrysler. “In order to advance autonomous driving technology, it is vital to form partnerships among automakers, technology providers and suppliers,” said Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne. “Joining this cooperation will enable [Fiat Chrysler] to directly benefit from the synergies and economies of scale that are possible when companies come together with a common vision and objective.” The group hopes to bring new technologies that enable highly automated and fully automated driving by 2021. In a statement released yesterday, the group announced that they are on-track to deploy 40 autonomous test vehicles on the road by the end of 2017. Professor Amnon Shashua, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Mobileye, an Intel Company says that the combination of Intel’s vision sensing and mapping technologies with the industry knowledge of BMW and Fiat Chrysler will bring cost efficient safety and versatility, across varied settings. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles also signed a separate agreement with Google’s parent company Alphabet last year, and the two companies have launched a trial under the Waymo brand in the United States. Waymo has developed a self-driving car based on Fiat’s Pacifica minivan. The passenger vehicle is a likely attempt to produce a self-driving ride hailing service, the market for which could be worth $2 trillion by 2030, Reuters reports. Fiat Chrysler New Zealand is a relatively new player in the NZ vehicle market. Established in May 2013 and owned by local distribution company Ateco Automotive, who also distributes vehicles in Australia and South Africa.