The BMW iX3 will record driving to improve future autonomous driving

Autonomous driving is set to become one of the most important innovations in the automotive industry, and it will reach us shortly. For this reason, manufacturers want these systems to work as efficiently as possible. This is achieved in several ways, but one of them is to understand how each driver behaves behind the wheel. So recording the driving style of many drivers is a good idea.

This is what BMW has come up with, since the brand is going to start making recordings to capture the driving styles of the users of the BMW iX3, so that it can train the AI that will form part of the autonomous driving systems the brand’s models will incorporate in the near future.

The aim is to gather information that allows systems such as emergency braking, lane change assist, cross-traffic alert and road and city driving assistance functions to work correctly. The company wants this data to serve not only to protect the occupants of the vehicle, but also pedestrians, cyclists and other road users.

Selective recordings

The recordings will not be continuous; instead, they will only capture specific moments during journeys. These moments include sudden braking, sudden evasive manoeuvres, emergency braking interventions and risk situations during lane changes.

When this occurs, the vehicle can capture images through its external cameras along with data such as speed, steering angle, direction of travel and readings from other sensors. These real incidents can be far more useful than simulations and tests with study vehicles, because they record how people actually drive and how the systems react in real-world situations.

Privacy is protected, since the identifying data of the vehicle and the driver is deleted when it reaches the BMW data centre. In principle, this will be carried out in Germany and starting with the BMW iX3, although the company expects to extend this to other future models and other European countries.

Technical specifications of this car

CrossoverBMW iX32 versions · from 62,900 €