BMW opens its new centre of excellence for autonomous driving

The decision to consolidate its development expertise in the areas of vehicle connectivity and highly or fully automated driving a just one location was made 15 months ago. The new campus that has 23,000 square metres of office space that has sufficient room for 1,800 employees was constructed in record time. The site is also conveniently located close to the motorway and the Research and Innovation Centre.

Looking to propel its development of highly autonomous vehicles with its new campus, the BMW Group is looking to hire software developers and IT specialists in the fields of artificial intelligence, data analysis, and machine learning.

The autonomous driving campus is also looking to have open working environments, with flexible and intelligent use of office space, and to hone a multifaceted and creative workspace. Development experts that work in the campus will greatly benefit from the flexibility, efficiency, high level of autonomy, and convenient location to test their innovations.

The open working environment will enable a new management and employee culture where managerial staff work together in the same open-plan office spaces as their staff. Increased interaction and communication is expected, leading to greater teamwork in the development of the highly complex products.

The agile working model form an important basis for efficient, future-proof development and the BMW Group is the first corporation in the automotive section to apply the model universally and systematically. The model will be applied across autonomous driving and driver assistance technoloies, from the research stage to the series production development.

With the open campus layout, excellent conditions and support are provided for scrum teams, lending itself perfectly to the agile software development process. The interdisciplinary structure within scrum teams also meant that an assortment of skills are brought together. These teams have to cope with complex sub-processes, working independently with an end-to-end approach. The increased flexibility that is accorded to the open working environment also allows them the autonomy to react quickly and effectively to new requirements.

With the arrival of new players in the highly competitive automotive industry, this is an era of distruptive change. In an era where the pace of technological innovation is advancing so quickly while young professionals cite future viability, a modern open working environment that allows for flexibile and agile workflows is pertinent to an employer’s attractiveness. Therefore, the new campus for autonomous driving as a cutting-edge development facility symbolises a crucial asset for the BMW group’s innovative capability and long-term sustainability.

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