Google self-driving cars have racked up over one million miles while Apple is reportedly working on an electric vehicle (EV). BMW announced at this year's Geneva Motor Show in Switzerland that the German automaker wants to build the world's most intelligent autonomous vehicles (AVs).
BMW board member Klaus Froehlich told Reuters at the yearly car show that the company wants to keep its business model and not allow a tech company to use it. In that case it would only produce the "metal bodies," according to Ubergizmo.
The car manufacturer has set a plan. It plans to boost hiring so half of its research and development team includes software engineers. Their goal will be to build artificial intelligence to power BMW's future self-driving cars.
Currently about 20 percent of BMW's 30,000 employees have backgrounds in AI and machine learning. Froehlich wants the figure to be about 50 percent within five years but a problem is that German schools are not training enough tech engineers for the automaker.
BMW Group has been building cars for a century and has marketed its vehicles as the "ultimate driving machine" according to BABWNews.
German automakers have become world-famous for their craftsmanship in the auto industry. However, in recent years the focus has been shifting from the automobile to the AI that runs the cars and trucks.
BMW is concerned that the best talent for developing self-driving cars will originate from Silicon Valley or China, so the company hopes to boost the in-house talent pool.
BMW's statement shows that it wants to be active in developing AVs instead of denying that driverless cars will hit the market sooner than the public thinks.
However, the company still believes there are benefits of teaming up with new outside suppliers. They could benefit from the German company's engineering know-how.
Froehlich believes that the next 5 or 6 years will be important. That will allow the country to improve its skills in developing self-driving cars.
Bayerische Motoren Werke was founded on March 2, 1916 and is headquartered in Munich, Germany. The company first built aircraft engines, followed by motorcycles and then automobiles.
Here's a BMW self-driving car conept: