A wise man once said, "If you believe that someday it's going to happen, some day it probably will happen. You just have to make sure you're there when it's happening, and ideally you're at the front of the parade, and the principle beneficiary of when it happens, but it's not a kind of thing where you just sort of sit back and wait."
Truer words have rarely been spoken, and it seems this is the attitude being taken by BMW as they make plans to develop a fully autonomous car by the year 2025.
You heard right. A recent announcement from our favorite German automaker outlined a plan where the lineup of new BMW vehicles would have the option of driving themselves by the year 2025. If this doesn't scream ambition, we don't know what does.
Together with Continental, BMW first wants to reach the goal of offering drivers partially automated models by 2016. This means that the cars would be able to drive themselves in certain scenarios, but the drive must be vigilant and ready to take the wheel whenever the car is uncertain of what to do. By 2020 BMW sees vehicles like the 5 Series being highly automated. This means that there will be no monitoring required by the driver, but the car may still need manual operation when more technical driving is required.
Then in 2025 the company envisions a fleet of luxury cars with enough special BMW parts that absolutely no human control is required.
This is a massive undertaking but we believe that it can happen. You can be sure to receive all the updates on this project here on our blog. If you are satisfied with piloting your own car for now, then make your way to BMW of Silver Spring and check out our large selection of new and used BMW vehicles available to Washington D.C. drivers. We are located at 3211 Automobile Blvd Silver Spring, MD 20904.