AWS gets the green light as BMW’s cloud provider

Black BMW captured driving on a main road with trees in the background | AWS

Key Takeaways

BMW Group has chosen Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its preferred cloud provider to enhance its automated driving platform, which will play a crucial role in developing advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) for upcoming vehicles.

The collaboration with AWS and Qualcomm Technologies aims to create a scalable, secure, and reliable infrastructure that supports extensive data processing and global collaboration, accelerating the development of highly automated driving features.

The integration of AWS's cloud capabilities will help BMW deliver innovative safety technologies and functionalities, enabling improved driver assistance systems that focus on preventing injuries and enhancing overall vehicle safety.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been selected by the BMW Group as the preferred cloud provider for its automated driving platform.

AWS will assist BMW in developing its advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), which will innovate new features for its next generation of vehicles, the ‘Neue Klasse’, expected to launch in 2025.

The cloud-based system will use BMW’s pre-existing Cloud Data Hub on AWS and AWS compute, GenAI, IoT, ML and storage capabilities to support the delivery of highly automated vehicles.

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Dr. Nicolai Martin, senior vice president of driving experience at BMW Group, said: “In the next decade, consumer habits and expectations will drive more changes in the automotive industry than we’ve seen over the past 30 years. This is just the beginning of a new era of highly automated driving, fueled by innovations in technology and engineering.

“By collaborating with AWS, the BMW Group, along with our partner, Qualcomm Technologies, is building our new automated driving platform on AWS’s scalable, secure and reliable infrastructure. We’re tapping into AWS’s ability to help empower the next generation of BMW’s automated driving and parking functions.”

BMW has also partnered with Qualcomm Technologies to co-develop automated driving systems based on the Snapdragon Ride Platform – a car-to-cloud, connected ADAS infrastructure that includes low-power SoC platforms with high-performance compute and AI engines with functional safety built-in.

The cloud will assist in breaking down development silos within vehicle software teams and enabling improved global collaboration with BMW suppliers to accelerate automated driving innovation. AWS will support BMW as it scales its capacity to handle extensive increases in data creation and usage within automated driving feature development.

The cloud-based infrastructure will provide the foundation for BMW to develop and deliver new functions for its vehicles, from lane departure assist and automated lane change to hands-free driving functions.

Wendy Bauer, general manager of automotive and manufacturing at AWS, said: “Automated driving is about more than just convenience, it’s also aimed at providing driver assistance technology that helps prevent injuries and saves lives.

“Implementing these systems on the BMW Group’s international scale requires an approach that can process and analyze vast amounts of data, as well as learn and innovate, so automakers can develop safer and more reliable automated and ADAS systems.”