Forget cruise control, now a completely hands-free driving experience is the goal of carmakers worldwide.
BMW first announced plans to invent a self driving car in August 2011, although industry analysts say the German carmaker likely won’t release its autonomous vehicle for another 10 to 15 years.
Based on BMW’s ConnectedDrive Connect (CDC) system, a BMW 5 series self driving model has been tested along Germany’s Autobahn.
With the self driving car in CDC “real-time mode,” the human driver is able to keep his hands off the wheel as the vehicle maneuvers along the busy freeway.
The self driving car looks no different than its non-CDC equipped counterparts thanks to the scanners, sensors, radars and cameras being built right into body. As long as the roads are previously mapped by the automaker, the BMW self driving can operate autonomously.
“Our main challenge was to develop algorithms that can handle entirely new situations. In principle, the system works on all freeways that we have mapped out beforehand with centimeter accuracy,” Nico Kaempchen, project manager of Highly Automated Driving at BMW Group Research and Technology explains in the video.
