BMW and Mercedes
The corona crisis caused the automakers’ business to collapse.
Frankfurt BMW and Daimler’s car subsidiary Mercedes Benz have canceled their development cooperation for highly automated driving for cost reasons. After intensive examination, they came to the conclusion that now was not the right time to do so due to the high costs for a common technology and in view of the general economic conditions BMW and Daimler on Friday with. Both companies wanted to follow their own development paths. A later collaboration is possible.
The corona crisis caused the automakers’ business to collapse. Companies are responding to this by cutting costs and reducing staff.
In February 2019, the rival carmakers announced their planned alliance and signed a contract for the long-term cooperation in July. The aim was to jointly develop the next generation of technology for driver assistance systems and automated driving on motorways, as well as automated parking functions. Corresponding systems in cars for private customers should be available from 2024.
BMW and Daimler wanted to share the billion dollar development costs and the Google-Daughter Waymo to stand up that has a technical edge here. Even before the corona crisis, the industry was disillusioned with the expensive technology because of the high costs.
However, BMW and Daimler want to continue other joint projects, it said. Together with other partners, they have the navigation data specialist Here. At the beginning of last year, they merged their mobility services in the Now joint venture.
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