Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Bill McAndrews, and I'm heading up corporate comms here at the BMW Group. First of all, for all those who are viewing, welcome. We're really glad to have you here with us and all those here in Garching at our tech center, welcome and thanks for coming at such short notice. I would like to also welcome you all on behalf of our CEO, Harald Krüger. Also, on behalf of Klaus Fröhlich, who is a board member at the BMW Group responsible for research and development. Most of all, I would like to welcome our two partner companies who are here today, and we have some great representatives here from those two companies. First of all, we have Intel CEO Brian Krzanich. Brian, help me with your name.
Krzanich.
Krzanich. Thank you, Brian. He's responsible at Intel for the Internet of Things. With us today are also our partners from Mobileye, Co-founder and CEO, Mr. Ziv Aviram. Is he here? Is Ziv here?
Yeah.
Welcome, Ziv. Glad to have you here. Also from Mobileye is Co-founder, Chairman and CTO, Professor Amnon Shashua. Great to have you here, Amnon, and we'll be hearing from you about all three later. First of all, before we begin, I want to thank all our colleagues here at the tech center. We know usually you're busy working hard on autonomous driving. Normally, we would actually do this event in the BMW VED in what we call the BMW Group Doppelkegel. Today we thought we would be just a bit disruptive, and we thought we would actually do it here at our tech center. First of all, I would like to thank all of our employees, all the associates are here, and I can imagine you are as excited as we are about this great partnership moving forward, talking about autonomous driving.
Before we begin, I'm going to give you sort of a rundown of the event, which will be more or less about an hour. First of all, Klaus Fröhlich is going to come on board on the stage and give us sort of an insight on the framework of this partnership and what it means for all three partners moving forward. Afterwards, we, of course, are going to have the three CEOs join us on the stage. Each will offer us some insight why they are here today, what they are bringing to the table, and what their expectations are at the end of the day when it comes to autonomous driving. Afterwards, we will definitely have time for a Q&A. Without further ado, Klaus, the stage is yours.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to BMW Group. In this research and technology center, which is very close to the campus of the Technical University of Munich, some of my best researchers are working on the future of mobility. We thought this is a perfect place to lay the foundation of our cooperation with Mobileye and Intel. For us, this is a very important step into the future of BMW Group. Thank you for being here. Digitalization will cause a deep transformation of the automotive industry. It will largely define tomorrow's mobility by connected vehicles, from rapid telecommunications and services on the one side, up to the fully automated driving. In 2002, we launched our first connected vehicle. We have since delivered 8.5 million connected vehicles to our customers. As of this year, every BMW now comes with the so-called embedded SIM.
Today, we already offer LTE 4G connectivity, BMW connected services, which help customers to find parking and charging spots, and of course, first generation of driver assistance systems. In the near future, we will need much faster 5G network, new sensor technologies, and redundant sensor clusters. We need enormous computing power in the vehicle and in the back end, state-of-the-art hardware and software security, and full scalability of the back end in order to provide extended vehicle services. For us always, the consistent and defining principle is safety and privacy first. All other things like potential business ideas, marketing. We have already worked on autonomous driving now for 10 years. At this year's CES, I had the pleasure to present our vision of connected automotive driving with this concept vehicle right to me, the BMW i Vision Future Interaction. This car clearly represents our DNA.
Breathtaking design, innovation, and also in the future, driving pleasure. The BMW Group aims to play a leading role in the future. Driving will be key for that. We have a very simple and clear goal. We want to be a technical leader in that field too. To be precise, this means autonomous driving Level 3, eyes off; Level 4, mind off; and the final stage, Level 5, traveling without a human driver inside. To make it very clear, we have a very realistic understanding of the challenges still ahead. We are strongly pursuing this goal with a holistic end-to-end approach, full system understanding that sets us apart from other companies. We are working systematically to establish the required, I call it, the technical building blocks. It's a high-definition real-time map. It's a state-of-the-art and redundant sensor cluster.
It's enormous computing power with artificial intelligence simulating a human brain in the end to create a real-time environmental model. Of course, motion control, I think we are quite good in it, and system integration. Two things are vital for us. We are increasing our in-house competencies. At the same time, we are teaming up with the right, with the best partners. Last year in December, when I come back to building block number 1, the three premium OEMs, BMW, Audi, and Mercedes, acquired HERE to pave the way to the high-precision map. It will offer real-time data for all customers with millions of anonymous data sources, constantly improving the map quality. The interest is sufficient. The next and most important building block for the BMW Group is develop autonomous driving technologies in the vehicle. This includes the sensor technologies, supercomputing.
I think we have to understand we need a leapfrog in computing performance. Use artificial intelligence, simply substituting human perception, understanding, and even prediction of the environment. All the things we can do when we drive cars. To shape this new era of mobility, we will achieve this next step together with our collaboration partners, Mobileye and Intel. Both have significant know-how and extensive experience in technologies which are crucial for highly and fully automated driving. You are the market leaders for advanced computer vision, for machine learning, leading-edge chip technologies, and back-end solutions with first-class hardware and software security. We, the BMW Group, will contribute with our automotive competence, such as safety and software standards for this industry, of course, motion control, and end-to-end system integration. As leaders in our respective segments, we will join forces for the automated driving and to bring this into serious production by 2021.
With our collaboration, we aim to set an automotive industry standard with state-of-the-art autonomous driving technologies. We have agreed with our partners to make our cooperation open to other companies, too. Dear Amnon, dear Brian, together, we will make this a reality. Thank you.
Thank you, Klaus, for setting the stage. Now I would ask the CEOs of Intel, Mobileye, and as well as the BMW Group to come on stage. Of course, the first word will, of course, come from Amnon, afterwards Brian, and then from Harald. Okay. Amnon, the stage is yours.
Hello, everyone. It's an honor to be standing here together with the leadership of BMW and Intel, two companies of great achievements and contribution to world economy. On behalf of myself and my dear partner, the CEO of Mobileye, Ziv Aviram, and behalf of Mobileye, we are all very humbled by the occasion. Back in the early '70s, society at large could not foresee the great revolution of computing that came upon us decade after decade. From the personal computer in the early '80s, the World Wide Web in the '90s, the search and smartphones a decade later, and the Internet of Things during this decade. Today, we are standing at the brink of a new revolution fueled by artificial intelligence and robotics.
We recognize that the car is the ideal platform for developing the technology of the future, a future driven by machine perception that reaches human capabilities and beyond, and of machine intelligence capable of making split-second decisions in complex driving situations, and when combined together, produce a self-driving car. Self-driving cars, if done right, with the proper ingredients of technological innovation, and very importantly, with precise focus on functional safety, will change transportation as we know it. Each of the three partners will contribute its domain expertise and innovation in algorithms, data centers, computing infrastructure, connectivity, design, and validation to bring a self-driving car to serious production by 2021. The self-driving car we envision is the one that is fully autonomous in both urban and highway settings and is capable of supporting new business models of shared mobility.
Mobileye brings our leading-edge algorithms and system on chip for machine perception, fusion, localization, and machine intelligence for path planning. All three parties envision a close collaborative work on fundamental aspects of sensor fusion and path planning and sharing computing between Mobileye's EyeQ system on chip and Intel's computing platforms. This partnership is nothing less than a turning point for the automotive industry at large. No more building concept vehicles or conducting research or performing fleet testing. The collaboration is about a commitment for serious production. The time is right, and our combined legacies, achievements, and know-how, each in its own domain, makes the pursuit of a fully autonomous car an achievable reality.
I would like to thank BMW's management, including CEO, Mr. Krüger, for a decade-long trust in Mobileye and the many production programs we have had together, as well as Intel CEO, Mr. Krzanich, for committing Intel's great resources and know-how in the pursuit of this important undertaking. Before I end, there's a short clip that gives more color about what Mobileye does. Thank you. When I was a student, we believed that the first platform for artificial intelligence would be robots. Today, we know that the first transformative platform for artificial intelligence are cars. Mobileye developed the most advanced and the most cost-effective system that can understand through a single camera the driving scene, lanes, vehicles, traffic signs, pedestrians. We develop algorithms that reach human-level perception, so once the camera is sufficiently intelligent, signals can be sent to the car control systems to avoid an accident.
This kind of technology will save lives. We did our development for about eight years, and then we had our first launch of this technology, which is packaged into a chip. There's no moment that you say, "Okay, we're finished." The development that we do is endless. Thank you.
Grüß Gott! That's as good as my German gets. I don't know if that was even that good, but it was an attempt. I'd just like to start with welcoming everybody here today and really spend a minute thanking the CEO, Herr Krüger. It's just a phenomenal opportunity to be here, and our partner, Mobileye, to make this announcement this morning. Intel and BMW, by the way, just celebrated its tenth anniversary in working together in building systems for driving. It's really been a great adventure that we've been leading up to today and today's announcement. We're really proud to join BMW and Mobileye in making this announcement today around really driving the future, we believe, of autonomous driving, an open intelligence system that will bring it to life by 2021.
At Intel, we believe the Internet of Things is really a collection of these smart and connected devices that will allow everyone to have new experiences. They'll be ubiquitous. They'll be all around your life. I think the car really embodies that better than anything else just about that's out there. The experience of driving, we believe, is truly ripe for this disruption of autonomous driving. 90% of all accidents that occur today are caused by driver error. Distracted and drowsy driving accounts for approximately 13% of those accidents. Those accidents cost approximately $870 billion a year globally. Autonomous driving technology, the things our three partners can bring together today, can solve those problems. Cars are rapidly becoming what we believe is the world's most intelligent, connected devices.
They're combining radar, sonar, lidar, a myriad of intelligent sensors connected to some of the best computing and machine learning algorithms in the world. They bring that driving experience to life in a way no other system can. Intel, we're bringing what we believe to be some of the best computing capabilities on the planet. That combined with the ability to do the sensor fusion, the artificial intelligence, the machine learning, and working with our partners, we believe we're going to build the best system that is out there. Solving big problems is what we do at Intel. With this partnership between BMW and Mobileye and Intel, we believe we can solve some of the world's largest problems around autonomous driving. We're honored to be a part of the and exciting innovation to the future of driving. Thank you.
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. I'm really proud on this new partnership and my two new colleagues. Some might think that autonomous driving means no more sheer driving pleasure. As a true auto fan, I can promise BMW will always offer an emotional and joyful driving experience. Let me show you how the BMW Group think future driving should look like. Start the film, please.
Okay, please call Caroline.
Hello, David. How are you?
Hi, Caroline. Fine, thanks.
Thanks for returning my call. I was calling about our campaign we were talking about last time. I sent you an email with the two possible headline press pictures. Is it possible for you to take a look at them right now?
Sure. I'll switch us to video call. I'm in auto mode now. All right, I see your content. I guess option 1 would be a better fit for our main efficiency strategy.
I think so too. I'll talk to the team. We'll move on with this. Thanks.
We should-
I think so too. I'll talk to the team. We'll move on with this. Thanks.
We should go for lunch when I'm back in Munich next week. I see Thursday could work.
It does. Great. Looking forward to it. Good luck for your meeting.
Thank you.
David, there's traffic ahead. To keep your estimated arrival time, I suggest leaving the highway at exit five for an alternative route downtown.
Okay. Thank you. See you later.
I will be back here and pick you up at 11:00.
Isn't this nice? I will pick you up after the meeting. With that special perfect day like today, I would enjoy that. You have just seen a glimpse of self-driving and sheer driving pleasure in the future. One thing I know for sure, the future of mobility is extremely exciting. You can see that. You can feel that. Digitalization is accelerating at a rapid pace. It has already completely changed the way we communicate. Our company has always been known for looking ahead and thinking long-term. With our strategy NUMBER ONE > NEXT, we are setting the framework to change in the automotive sector. We will lead the BMW Group into a new area, one in which we will transform and shape both individual mobility and the entire sector for years to come.
We see the changes sweeping across the world of mobility through digitalization and an excellent opportunity to make mobile life simpler, safer, and more convenient. At the BMW Group, we always strive for technological leadership. With strategy NUMBER ONE > NEXT, we are further strengthening the approach for the future of the BMW Group and the benefits of our customers. Step by step, we are evolving from an engineering business to a tech company, providing individual premium mobility and services. Our focuses on future mobility addresses four areas, which we call ACES: autonomous driving, connectivity, electric and/or emissions free, and sharing, especially for urban mobility. Last year, we paved the way for high precision mapping when we joined with partner companies to acquire map service HERE. This was the first strategic step. Today marks another big further step in our realization of autonomous driving.
Together with our great partners, Intel and Mobileye, we will develop the necessary solutions and innovative systems for highly and fully automated driving. We will bring these technologies into serious production for 2021 with the BMW iNEXT. Our goal is clearly defined. We would like to be the number one in autonomous driving. The collaboration underscores our commitment to achieve that goal. We are delighted to be working together with Intel and Mobileye. Our teams around the world are already working. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you, gentlemen. Are there any questions? This is your moment. I can't really see anybody. Okay. Yes, in the back. There's a microphone for you.
Yes. Thank you. Elisabeth Behrmann from Bloomberg News. Can you tell us a little bit more about the funding for this venture that you have in mind? How much money are you each planning to commit to this? Secondly, you talked about how you want to have these cars driving around in urban environments in five years' time, which is quite soon. How can you be sure that your car will be ready for the real world, in particular, thinking about the accident with the Tesla car we've just had? Thank you.
Would you like to start, Amnon?
I can start. In terms of resources, we are spending at least $100 with 700 people. In terms of the challenges ahead, 5 years is on one hand is a very short time, on the other hand, is sufficient time to do the types of validations that are needed. Validations include not only hundreds of thousands or millions of kilometers of validation, but also many simulations. Real-time simulations with artificial but realistic scenes in order to test merging into traffic and other things that are beyond sensing. It is all the driving intelligence that is needed to merge into traffic with type of human driving behavior. I think it is very important, especially given this accident that we hear about in the news, that companies would be very transparent about limitations of the system. It's not enough to tell the driver you need to be alert.
You need to tell the driver why you need to be alert. It's not only lawyer talk. You need to be alert. You need to tell the driver why you need to be alert. It's not only lawyer talk. I think a company as reputable as BMW does things right in that respect.
Harald, would you like to add something?
Yes. First of all, I think the accident is really very sad. From our perspective, talking about the BMW Group, we need the next years. That's why we announced that we will take the step to autonomous driving in 2021. We believe by today, the technologies are not ready for serious production.
Brian, would you like to add anything?
I'll put hundreds of people, several hundred people on this project. If you take a look at the overall spending in hardware and software, several hundred million dollars to bring this to life. I look at this as something that will teach us about machine learning and really autonomous engineering for multiple types of applications. 5 years, I think if you take a look at this, enough engineers have looked at this problem and broken it down and tried to understand the systems that have to be developed, the safety systems, the rigor that we have to apply to this. I think you've got the right three set of partners to apply that kind of engineering rigor to this problem. I'm fairly confident that we can do this in the 5-year timeframe.
Good. There's another question. Could you please raise your hand? Yes, here. Mr. Fetter?
Yeah, thank you. The term autonomous driving is used very differently. When you talk about 2021, could you explain, is this level? What are we talking about for 2021? Thanks.
Amnon, would you like to start?
In 2021, we're talking about both Level 3 and Level 5. Level 3 in the local jargon here is highly autonomous driving, limited to highways, but on a highway, you're completely safe. That means you can really take eyes off, and you know that there is a significant grace period from the time the system is compromised until you really need to take control. If you don't take control, the system will know how to stop aside slowly in a safe manner. Level 3 is safe, autonomous driving, but limited only to two highways. At the same time, 2021, we are envisioning fully autonomous driving in geofenced area. Take a city like Munich and geofence a certain area of it, and in that area, provide safe, completely Level 5 autonomous driving.
Would you like to add something, Harald?
For the BMW Group, safety comes first, definitely as the most important topic. We will do step by step, as Amnon just explained, where we would like to be and where we would like to achieve in 2021. Safety comes first.
Brian, in your opinion?
No, that's very well explained by Amnon.
Okay, good. Next question. Is there another hand up that I haven't seen?
Yeah. Writing up. Reuters. Can you talk a little bit about the open platform you're going to create? Who will join that or which partners are you interested?
Do you want you to start, Harald?
Yeah, I can start. First of all, we would like to create a standard platform, which means like, with Nokia HERE, we are open that others would join. It's too early to say who could be that, but we would like to have a standard open platform where other partners would join in the future. That's the strategic approach.
From your side, Amnon?
Yeah, I think standardization is very important because we need to work with regulatory bodies. Regulatory bodies, they need to see a standardization emerging. Because if each car manufacturer decides on a different set of sensing and different set of software stacks, different sets of validation, and so forth, it could create a chaos in this industry. BMW's idea of leading toward a standardization, of course, in discussion with all other car manufacturers, I think it is very important. It will push the industry overall. It will push the envelope further into the future, and there is enough elements there to differentiate between car manufacturers. It's not that all car manufacturers will do the same thing, but there are many elements that need to be standardized, and I think starting the discussion of standardization is really a turning point in what we're all doing here.
Brian, anything to add?
Yeah. I think standardization is critical. I think if you take a look at the history of computing, it's when you've had standardization around open standards. It's this thing about open standards that allow people to contribute, to add to it, and to advance it at a faster rate as an open group. Those have always led the compute industry, this is really a compute type problem we're looking at here. You can take a look at connectivity standards like USB or any of those, it was when they were open and a standard and everybody started using them, they really become ubiquitous.
I think when you're looking at something like this, and you're looking at the vehicle safety and the driver safety, that standardization and that open so that people are learning and sharing is going to be critical for advancing the safety aspects of this. That's where I think this is really valuable.
Another question? Any questions over here? No? Okay. Well, I think we have basically made our journalists and the media happy so far.
Time for one comment.
Yes. A little bit. Wait one second. Actually, I would like to thank all the people who are viewing around the world, that they joined us today for this momentous occasion. On behalf of the BMW Group, Intel, as well as Mobileye, thanks for joining us. For those who are in the room, I would really appreciate if you could sit for a few seconds because we want to do a photo shoot. Thanks for coming, and good luck to everybody