BMW autonomous driving centre opens

BMW has officially opened its autonomous driving campus in Unterschleißheim near Munich.

The facility showcasing the BMW Group’s transformation into a tech company covers every base when it comes to offering greater capacity for innovation and increased development efficiency – and ultimately securing the company’s future sustainability, BMW says.

The group made the decision 15 months ago to pool together its development expertise in the fields of vehicle connectivity and highly or fully automated driving at one location.

The campus has 23,000 square metres of office space with room for 1800 employees.

IT specialists and software developers in the areas of artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analysis will be recruited.

The site’s optimum infrastructure, its closeness to the Research and Innovation Centre, and the nearby link to the motorway network helped the decision.

An open-plan layout, intelligent and flexible use of office space, and a multifaceted and creative workplace are planned.

Flexibility, efficiency, a high level of autonomy and short distances mean, for example, that a software developer working at the new campus can immediately test out freshly written code in a vehicle that is just a short walk away.

Managers work in the same open-plan office spaces as their staff. This enhances interaction and facilitates communications, resulting in effective teamwork, BMW says.

The BMW Group is the first company in the automotive industry to apply the agile working model systematically and universally for an entire specialist area – in this case across autonomous driving and driver assistance, from the research phase all the way through to series production development.

At the official ceremony were BMW AG board of management member responsible for development and research Klaus Fröhlich and Bavarian state premier Markus Söder.