FCA Teams Up With BMW On Autonomous Cars

With the race to autonomous vehicle tech heating up, new alliances are forming. The latest involves Fiat Chrysler Automobiles joining up with BMW, Intel Corp., and Mobileye (which is owned by Intel). The German automaker was already working with the tech companies, so FCA is the new kid in the club.

Most people don’t think of FCA when anyone mentions cutting-edge automotive tech. That may not be fair. Sure, the automaker has made a splash with the Demon, a chest-thumping muscle car. But it also makes the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid. That minivan features some pretty impressive tech, and it caught everyone off-guard.

This latest announcement has once again taken some by surprise. Oddly enough, that includes certain industry experts. FCA has shown interest in autonomous tech, like the Chrysler Portal Concept that debuted in January at CES, also known as the Consumer Electronics Show.

Developing autonomous tech isn’t cheap, and it isn’t easy. This alliance demonstrates the “race” between Silicon Valley and Detroit should really be a pooling of resources. With everyone bringing their expertise to the table, we might be able to create self-driving cars that don’t suck.

BMW, FCA, etc. have a realistic approach. The tech they’re developing will work for Level 3, 4, and 5 autonomous driving. That’s smart, because Level 5 could be a long way out, despite all the optimistic estimates flying around these days.