Intel, BMW, Former Tesla Partner Mobileye, Plan 40 Autonomous Test Vehicles By Late 2017

It's been six months since German automaker BMW, U.S. technology giant Intel and Israeli computer vision systems company Mobileye came together to collaborate on self-driving cars, and the partnership seems to finally be bearing fruit. During a joint press conference at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the companies announced they will start testing autonomous vehicles later this year. "A fleet of approximately 40 autonomous BMW vehicles will be on the roads by the second half of 2017, demonstrating the significant advancements made by the three companies towards fully autonomous driving," the companies said in a joint statement. The vehicles will be BMW 7 series cars, and the trials will take place in the U.S. as well as in Europe. "This year our fleet of vehicles will already test this joint technology globally under real traffic conditions. This is a significant step towards the introduction of the BMW iNEXT in 2021, which will be the BMW Group's first fully autonomous vehicle," Klaus Fröhlich of BMW said in the statement.