BMW and Polestar say true autonomous cars are close

If you think autonomous driving is only achievable for James Bond, think again. BMW and Polestar have revealed how far the tech has come and it will hit Aussie roads soon.

Polestar chief executive Thomas Ingenlath says: “I love driving cars, but not always. Sometimes I hate driving cars.”

More than a quarter of century after James Bond lit up cinema screens, driving a BMW via a remote control, carmakers are now making the technology a reality.

At CES, the world’s biggest consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, BMW showcased its remote-controlled valet parking.

A driver left the car at a defined drop off point, while autonomous driving kicked in, with the car finding a parking space. It could even then pick up the customer – just as valet would – from the defined pick up point.

This of course doesn’t have the drama of the 1997 James Bond, Tomorrow Never Dies, in which the hero steers his BMW 750iL away from villains in a barrage of gunfire and other stunts, or 2023’s Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One, which also features a BMW autonomous driving system.

But BMW’s CES showcase underscores how autonomous driving is no longer the realm of Hollywood flicks or science fiction. And other car makers are racing to show how the technology can be applied to everyday use.

BMW’s autonomous platform uses sophisticated technology and live camera images to guide and move the vehicle so that it can be parked and retrieved again in a carefully controlled manner.

It says possible future applications for this technology could include parking at events, at airports or in the logistics sector.

“BMW is synonymous with both the ultimate driving machine and the ultimate digital experience,” says Frank Weber, member of the board of management responsible for BMW Group development.

BMW showcases its latest self driving "valet" technology ahead of CES in Las Vegas.

But Polestar – a Swedish marque owned by China’s Geely Group – expects truly autonomous driving to become an everyday reality in the later part of this decade.

“I really look forward to that in a couple of years, which means ‘25,’26, ‘27 or something like that, so not at the end of the decade,” Polestar chief executive Thomas Ingenlath told The Australian.

“I think it would be incredible – I would say eye-opener – for the customer to experience much more what a car can do for you. I mean, I love driving cars, but not always. Sometimes I hate driving cars.”

Mr Ingenlath highlighted a common Australian problem in which people had limited to choices to travel vast distances – battle airport congestion, an unreliable train network, or drive themselves and not be able to perform any other task, hampering productivity.

“If I have to go to let’s say Gothenburg to Stockholm … the challenge is to drive to the airport and the struggle at the airport and going to the city. It takes a long time and it’s very unpleasant to have to fly too much.

“Taking the train is a good alternative, unfortunately, it’s not reliable. And using the car today, it’s a boring drive – it‘s just far too long and just far too much not giving me the time that I would need to do certain things.

“So having a car that worked a long stretch of that journey, on a highway, unsupervised – I can actually answer an email, an SMS, read, would be a great way of travelling from Gothenburg to Stockholm. For that reason, I think it will be an incredible experience for customers.”

The new Polestar 4 SUV lays the foundation for the integration of Mobileye Chauffeur.

Polestar has partnered with Israeli-headquartered technology company Mobileye to make autonomous driving a reality.

Mobileye’s has been built into the Polestar 4 model, which was showcased at CES. Polestar 4 – which goes on sale globally this year – will feature Mobileye’s SuperVision driver assist technology, which the company says lays the foundation for the integration of Chauffeur “later in time”.

“What we will see coming is certain parts of your journey being unsupervised, and that technology is quite mature already,” Ingenlath says.

But a handbrake of deploying the technology more broadly is convincing policymakers that it’s safe, which Mr Ingenlath said would take “some time”.

James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan standing in front of BMW 7-Series sedan in 1997 film "Tomorrow Never Dies".

Consumers also need to feel comfortable in using the technology, particularly activating it in crowded cities. As Mr Ingenlath says, they need to feel comfortable enough that it is in control – not feeling like it’s jerking them through city streets or being hesitant about navigating traffic.

But automaker have been warming customers up. Mercedes and other brands began introducing auto parallel parking assist more than a decade ago, in which drivers could take their hands of the steering wheel and let the car park itself.

But that technology is clunky, relying on the driver to drive at a certain speed and distance away from parked cars for the self-driving system to activate. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t, leaving the customer to park the car themselves.

Mobileye said its Chauffer platform is “a turnkey self-driving system designed to turn a consumer vehicle into an eyes-off/hands-off system”.

“Mobileye Chauffeur brings together Mobileye’s unique approach to surround vision with radar and lidar coverage into a solution for which we’re targeting a cost, by 2025, of under $US6000 ($8974).”

The author travelled to Las Vegas as a guest of Hisense.