Tencent & BMW: New Computing Centre For Autonomous Cars In China

As reported on July 19, the German auto manufacturer BMW is collaborating with Tencent Holdings – the online gaming company from China – to build a computing center in China. Accordingly, the center will focus on developing autonomous cars in the largest auto market in the world.

This computing center is expected to come into operations at the end of 2019. With it, cars will be equipped with the data crunching capabilities, and hence, owners can drive them in a semi-autonomous or even completely autonomous mode.

Both companies, BMW and Tencent, did not reveal any information related to the investment in this computing center. It is allegedly constructed in Tianjin’s eastern city. The news was leaked by some confidential sources.

The German automaker said this computing center will make use of the big data and cloud computing data of Tencent. Also, it provides the infrastructure that BMW needs to develop self-driving cars.

According to the Munich-based automaker, L3 classification or semi-autonomous cars will be probably introduced in China in the next two years, in 2021. Therefore, it is necessary for the company to have huge computing power to carry out an analysis of digital information concerning traffic and road conditions in real-time.

The reason why data crunching capabilities are necessary for autonomous cars is due to its neuro-network or AI technology these vehicles rely on. With this technology, autonomous cars can "learn" via experience, and can drive by themselves without the intervention from human drivers.

The project of the computing center in China is another move of BMW after a similar center opens in Munich in the early of 2019.