BMW has reached a milestone of one million vehicles moved through its factories without anyone behind the wheel. The company’s Automated Driving In-Plant (AFW) system takes cars from assembly lines to testing and logistics areas, including vehicles that are not yet fully assembled.
Introduced as a pilot at BMW’s Dingolfing plant in Germany in 2022, AFW now completes around 3,500 automated journeys per day. BMW reports technical availability of more than 99.5%.
The system is in use at the German sites in Dingolfing, Leipzig and Regensburg, as well as at the Mini plant in Oxford, UK. Rather than relying on driver-assistance equipment fitted to each car, it uses LiDAR sensors installed around factory corridors and buildings to guide vehicles.
Developed with Swiss startup Embotech, the infrastructure calculates routes in real time and sends commands to each vehicle’s steering, brakes and accelerator. The cars can navigate around employees and forklifts, and the setup works across different vehicle versions and body styles. In Oxford, the system is also synchronized with the assembly line’s lifts.
BMW plans to bring AFW to its Spartanburg plant in the United States from 2027. The company says it eventually aims to deploy the technology across its global production network, including its Araquari facility in Brazil.
Sources: Canaltech.