Half-way there? BMW launches Level 3 autonomous driving function in 7 series

Back in 2020 I wrote about the steps to getting to fully autonomous driving vehicles, and on how hard it is to get there.

Since then, Cruise and Waymo driverless taxi trials and operations at Level 5 have extended into a number of US cities. Thus far though, their efforts to reach Level 5 successfully have been frustrated by the occasional silly accident (like driving into wet concrete) … and not-so-silly road incidents like hitting emergency vehicles and parking on an injured pedestrian.

However, the privately owned car arena has seen little movement towards autonomy … except perhaps for more investigations by California’s attorney general’s office into alleged misleading claims by Tesla regarding naming their driver assist feature ‘autopilot’.

In the background though, the auto manufacturers have been busily trying to crack the next level of the autonomy nut and catch-up/surpass Tesla’s level Level 2.x (that is, not quite Level 3) ‘autopilot’. As part of that work, BMW have now announced they will soon add a Level 3 autonomy option into the list available for their flagship 7 series vehicles.

As I noted in that article – the definition of Level 3 is for a car to effectively drive itself within a limited set of conditions, but the driver must always be in a position to resume control (i.e. in the driver’s seat and not too distracted), plus the car must give sufficient advance notice of when to resume that control.

 SAE defined levels of autonomous driving. Graphic: University of Birmingham

Called the ‘BMW Personal Pilot L3’, BMW will in March 2024 start offering offer Level 3 autonomy as a €6,000 (AU $10,000) option for the 7 series – but only for customers in Germany.

BMW claim that with L3 activated, drivers will have the ability to concentrate on secondary in-vehicle activities, away from what is happening on the road. This they suggest could include editing e-mails, or even use digital services (such as streaming videos) on the central display.

As per the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) definition of Level 3 vehicle autonomy, when it is in use the driver must be ready to take back the task of driving at any time – i.e. as soon as the situation on the road requires them to, or the stretch of road suitable for using L3 functionality comes to an end.

The system will work through symbols appearing on the dash to indicate whether the road is suitable for using the L3 option. It can then be activated (and deactivated) by a button on the steering wheel.

Should road conditions change, the road suitable for L3 use end or the L3 system itself start to malfunction, visual and acoustic signals will let the driver know they have to take over control. If the driver does not respond as required, the vehicle will be brought to a controlled standstill.

In the background, a combination of programming, sensors and live links will keep the car under control. A live HD map with precise routes is permanently aligned with extremely accurate GPS location-finding and in conjunction with 360° sensors, ensuring exact positioning and monitoring of the area around the vehicle.

The live HD map is always up to the minute thanks to regular updates through a 5G link-up to the BMW Cloud.

Besides the cameras, BMW equip L3 specified vehicles are fitted with ultrasonic and radar sensors plus a highly sensitive 3D LIDAR sensor for monitoring the area around the vehicle and the situation on the road. As a result – BMW’s L3 option is only available in conjunction with the relevant BMW Connected Drive services.

Given the 7 series is BMW’s flagship vehicle and the features that start in that model inevitable trickle down in time to their other models – if successful, it may not be long before we see Level 3 autonomy start to appear in other BMWs. At Level 3, one could also say we are ‘half-way there’ in terms of the SAE defined autonomous driving levels.

It is also highly likely that the other manufacturers will not be far behind in adding the feature … and catching up with/even surpassing another of Tesla’s former leads in EV technology.