Driving experience

In "Tomorrow Never Dies", James Bond futuristically steered his BMW through a parking garage - from his mobile phone. Audiences loved the image of a car with no driver. Back then, it came straight out of Q's bag of spy tricks; today, cars like the BMW 7 Series can be parked automatically by remote control.

BMW presents the BMW Track Trainer for the first time. The technology helps the vehicle to master the Hockenheimring at race pace on the ideal line. The Track Trainer also provides the basis for further automated driving development projects.

BMW starts testing highly automated research vehicles on the A9 in 2011. The technology for this comes from enhancements to the Track Trainer and the Emergency Stop Assistant.

A research vehicle based on the BMW 2 Series Coupé uses the technology of highly automated driving up to the limit. At CES, BMW is able to showcase autonomous drifting with this vehicle. The stunt is made possible by highly sensitive sensors on the vehicle.

For the first time, BMW parks a BMW i3 dynamically and safely without a driver in Las Vegas. This is made possible by the 360° collision avoidance technology and the Remote Valet Parking Assistant.

The BMW 7 Series manoeuvres into parking spaces and garages without a driver. The vehicle can steer itself on motorways at speeds up to 210 km/h. Cameras, radar sensors and ultrasonic sensors allow the vehicle to sense its surroundings fully.

At the CES 2017, we unveiled our vision of the vehicle of the future with the BMW i Inside Future sculpture: The design of the vehicle interior and its operating system are entirely geared towards fully-automated driving. The vehicle is also seamlessly integrated with the driver's digital lifestyle.

In April 2018 the BMW Group opens the Autonomous Driving Campus, where talents from a wide range of fields research the self-driving vehicle with a new method of collaboration. The campus is a pioneering development site with state-of-the-art workplaces and intelligent IT infrastructure that combines all the development steps in one place.

Making automated and autonomous driving manageable and offering customers the best possible driving experience calls for the right competences in dealing with anonymised development and customer data. The BMW Group High Performance D3 platform forms the basis for this. The “D3” in the IT platform name stands for data-driven development. It is a high-performance data platform with more than 230 petabytes of memory capacity as well as a computer platform with more than 100,000 processor cores and more than 200 GPUs (Graphics Processing Units).

With the new Driving Simulation Centre, the BMW Group creates all the possibilities for its vehicle development and research activities to test and simulate the production requirements of the future in a realistic way. With 14 simulators and usability labs on an area of 11,400 m², it is the most modern and flexible simulation centre in the automotive industry.

A new technology toolkit is used for the first time in the BMW iX. With this, the vehicles of the BMW Group are taking a further step towards highly automated and autonomous driving. The new technology toolkit enables continuous improvement and expansion of the assistance functions (Level 2) – and in the medium term Level 3 in the new BMW 7 Series.

The first driving tests take place in the Future Mobility Development Center (FMDC) of the BMW Group in Sokolov in 2022. The complete startup is planned for 2023. The FMDC offers the BMW Group’s development engineers the most varied use cases for testing partially and fully automated driving – from driving manoeuvres in open spaces to journeys in an urban environment to country roads and motorway sections, all conceivable scenarios can be reproduced.

The BMW Group launches the permanent all-wheel-drive with the BMW 325i. The power transmission to all four wheels serves not only to optimise traction on unpaved ground and in adverse weather conditions, but also for more driving dynamics in corners from the beginning.

Servotronic hits the market for the first time with the BMW 7 Series and offers drivers variable steering assistance that is matched to the speed and the driver’s need. This ensures greater directional stability at high speeds and more steering assistance at low speeds. With the electronically controlled shock absorbers for each individual wheel introduced at the same time, the driver can choose between comfortable and sporty damping and the respective driving experience delivered by each. Automatic Stability Control (ASC) meanwhile holds the vehicle steady in its line – whether driving straight ahead or cornering.

The BMW 8 Series Coupé has a lively rear axle. The rear-axle wheels steer in the same direction as the steering wheel up to a maximum steering angle of three degrees. The active rear-axle kinematics ensure more driving stability. Starting from 1992, the Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) in the BMW 8 Series Coupé detects critical driving conditions. The DSC ensures high stability and greater safety in such situations through interventions in the engine management system.

The BMW 5 Series is the first to feature a solid aluminium suspension and thus offers even more agility, sporting character and comfort.

Improved braking stability: in the BMW 7 Series/BMW 5 Series, Dynamic Brake Control is used for this. During full braking, it boosts the build-up of brake pressure and thus always ensures the shortest possible braking distance. The BMW 5 Series is accompanied by the introduction of Cornering Brake Control, a driver assistance system, which supports the driver during gentle braking in corners driven at high speed through an asymmetrical pressure distribution between the left and right vehicle brakes.

Superior hill descent control: the Hill Descent Control introduced with the first BMW X5 supports the driver by automatically maintaining the desired speed during steep descents. This allows the driver to concentrate fully on steering, for example when reversing downhill on surfaces with poor grip.

Outstanding comfort and a variable vehicle level for difficult terrain: the introduction of the 2-axle air suspension in the Sports Activity Vehicle X5 guarantees the utmost comfort and greatest possible ground clearance even on unpaved roads. Equipped with a self-levelling suspension, the air suspension maintains the vehicle at a constant level regardless of the load status. This means that the full spring travel is available at all times, for maximum comfort. At the same time the vehicle can be raised, for example on unpaved roads or for steep garage exits, in order to increase the ground clearance.

With the BMW X3, the xDrive intelligent all-wheel drive system celebrates its premiere and ensures optimum driving dynamics and traction by continuously and variably distributing the driving power between the front and rear axles within fractions of a second. xDrive is the next chapter in BMW’s evolution of the all-wheel drive. At slow driving speeds, for example in cities, when parking and on winding roads, the active steering of the BMW 5 Series increases the steering lock. The driver can complete the tightest manoeuvres with a small turn of the wheel, without having to change grip.

At slow driving speeds, for example in cities, when parking and on winding roads, the active steering of the BMW 5 Series increases the steering lock. The driver can complete the tightest manoeuvres with a small turn of the wheel, without having to change grip.

The BMW 7 Series offers a real highlight when it comes to driving dynamics: Adaptive Drive. A combination of electronically controlled dampers and active roll stabilisation. As a result, body roll during cornering is reduced. At the same time, the possibilities of active roll stabilisation are combined with electronically controlled shock absorbers in order to perfectly adapt the wheel to the particular situation at all times.

More agility? Dynamic Performance Control offers this in the BMW X6. This system enables continuous lateral distribution of the drive torque between the rear wheels. This not only further enhances the stability and traction, but also increases the vehicle agility. Corners can be negotiated more dynamically, with reduced steering effort and an extended limit range.

BMW increases both driving comfort and agility in the X3 with variable sport steering. The more direct ratio reduces the overall steering angle, which helps to increase comfort during driving manoeuvres involving large steering wheel angles (e.g. during parking, cornering or turning). It also makes for a more direct vehicle response and higher agility. This comes into play during avoidance manoeuvres, for example.

The front-axle differential lock increases driving dynamics in the BMW X2, meaning that active brake interventions are not needed until much later. The drive power distribution thus contributes to a significant increase in driving stability as well as driving dynamics. In addition, traction is increased both for straight-line driving and cornering.

The continuous further development of the driver assistance systems as well as the electrification of the powertrain represent ever greater challenges to current brake systems. To reduce the complexity while at the same time enhancing the functionality, a completely new brake system is introduced: the integrated braking system. A special feature of this brake system is the decoupling of the driver from the wheel brake hydraulics. Brake systems with this feature are called electro-hydraulic “brake-by-wire” brake systems.

Driving pleasure and safety benefit from a new shock absorber technology used for the first time at the BMW Group with the reworking of the MINI: the frequency-selective shock absorption adapts masterfully to any unevenness in the road and in this way efficiently resolves the conflict between comfort and sporting character.

Maximum body stability: the Executive Drive Pro option including the Active Roll Comfort function used for the first time in the new BMW 7 Series delivers a superior, comfortable and at the same time agile driving experience. The suspension control in combination with adaptive 2-axle air suspension, four electronically controlled shock absorbers (one for each wheel) and the active roll stabilisation at the front and rear axles offers a completely new level of driving and travel comfort.