BMW's tradition as a premium vehicle manufacturer relies on manufacturing quality, refined Bavarian design and, last but not the least, thorough testing of all its technologies.
Currently, only the BMW 7 Series offers self-parking capabilities, and there is a strong motivation behind the German car builder's reluctance to implement overall autonomous driving technologies.
BMW chooses to wait out before implementing automated driving tech on its cars, a position highly different from Tesla's, which already tested its Autopilot features on public roads.
"We can offer automated driving on the motorway up to 120 kilometers per hour (74 mph)," Harald Krüger, BMW CEO declared in an interview with Handelsblatt.
However, Krüger mentioned that the speed at which rival car companies implement automated driving technologies is more suitable for the software industry, where fewer risks are involved.
"In the app industry, you can launch products on the market that are 70 to 80 percent ready and then complete their development with the customer," Krüger pointed out. He added that it is unrealistic, almost "impossible" to apply the same philosophy when equipping car safety features.
The ideas of the BMW leader get a powerful confirmation from the way in which Tesla Model S buyers behaved when the American automotive company introduced the Autopilot 7.0 software update. Some straight-on scary and irresponsible actions were spotted in drivers who "creatively" used the Auto Lane Change system and Autosteer. The danger was so obvious that Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla, went on to publicly suggest that the EV automaker's systems of autonomous technologies could benefit from "additional constraints."
Such examples back BMW's executive cautiousness. The Munich-based car manufacturer will implement autonomous technologies one step at a time, instead of packing one vehicle with a big load of code before it's ready.
Krüger explained that his company already uses advanced automation in its vehicles, for example the sans-driver parking feature of the new edition of the BMW 7 Series. He noted that in the near future cars will be able to find a place in the parking garage on their own, saving time and nerves for the driver.
Only when this will be commonplace, the BMW CEO said, the Bavarian cars will support motorway automated driving.
"Our technology must be 100 percent reliable," he concluded.
