Ansys and BMW have partnered to jointly create an industrial holistic simulation tool chain for developing autonomous vehicle (AV) technologies. The multi-year agreement drives the development of BMW Group’s Level 3 offering and Level 4-5 technology, delivering high/full automation for the highly anticipated BMW iNEXT, expected to launch in 2021.
Ansys simulation brings a complete virtual testing environment for AV systems to the partnership, designed to usher in a new era of fully autonomous vehicles and help address critical safety validation requirements for autonomous driving. The new automated simulation tool chain will make efficient use of BMW´s large amount of sensor data through intelligent data analytics and the creation of scenarios according to statistical relevance and highly automated and autonomous driving (AD) system sensitivity. The scenarios will include usual driving situations and corner cases to ensure maximum test coverage.
Before they drive the highways in large numbers though, AVs must indeed first support safety testing through rigorous testing in complex driving environments, including boundless road conditions and weather scenarios. Simulation greatly reduces the need for physical testing, that would require billions of miles of physical road tests across numerous driving conditions, and will help bring safe AVs to the highways in a fraction of the time.
Based on all kind of driving scenarios, the simulation tool chain will perform rigorous safety assessments of the AD systems in a high-performance virtual environment. Ansys and BMW will support its adaptability and openness regarding relevant interfaces and validation approaches to accommodate and foster safety initiatives. Ansys will assume exclusive rights to the simulation tool chain technology for commercialization to a wider market.