Qualcomm Technologies, BMW Group and Arriver Software have announced a long-term cooperation for the development of next-generation Level 2 and Level 3 automated driving (AD) technologies.

Building upon BMW’s current automated driving stack with Arriver’s vision perception and enabled through Qualcomm Technologies’ system-on-chip Snapdragon platform, Nicolai Martin, Senior Vice President Driving Experience, BMW Group describes the agreement as “an important milestone for the BMW Group with regards to our next generation automated driving platform.

“To enable sophisticated and safe functionalities in a vehicle you need state-of-the art software in all components of the digital value chain. This forms the backbone for intelligent driver assistance systems. The BMW Group is excited to further extend our partnership with global technology leaders Qualcomm Technologies and Arriver to include a long-lasting strategic co-development cooperation in order to continue delivering world-class driving experiences to our customers.”

The efforts will focus on creating a scalable platform for automated driving based on a common reference architecture, sensor-set specifications, and safety requirements with joint development, toolchain, and a data centre for storage, reprocessing, and simulation. The cooperation will see more than 1,400 specialists working together in locations worldwide, including Germany, USA, Sweden, China, Romania, and the BMW AD Test Centre in Czech Republic.

And while Qualcomm Technologies, BMW Group and Arriver are working closely together to establish and continuously develop an ecosystem for automated driving solutions, they stress they remain open to further partnerships.