BMW to show autonomous car developments in 2016

It seems BMW is ready to present its developments in the field of autonomous technology, Autocar reports. In conjunction with its 100th birthday which falls on March 7, 2016, the brand will unveil said developments, according to Ian Robertson, BMW head of sales and marketing.

He also disclosed the ‘stages’ the brand’s tech is currently at. “We’ve reached the ‘feet off’ phase of autonomy and now we’re in the ‘hands off’ and ‘eyes off’ phase, but only for brief periods,” Robertson said. He further stated that the next phase will be “brain off.”

In that, Robertson noted that although the technology could be ready in about a decade’s time, there were still factors that will delay the innovation by 15 years instead. Of the factors, Robertson said that one of it was the “moral dilemma” of fully-autonomous technology.

Robertson explained, “in a situation where a truck is going to hit your car, what does the autonomous car decide to do: save you by swerving out of the way, swerve into the path of another vehicle and possibly kill someone, or hit a pedestrian, or does it simply decide that, yes, the truck is going to hit you? We’re not ready for that,” he said.

According to him, while the the brand will be celebrating its 100th year in business but at the same time, it will be mainly be looking at the next 100 years. “Maybe what I’ve been alluding to will be the direction of that,” he concluded.

While not exactly from BMW itself, concept car builder Rinspeed is working on a self-driving car based on the BMW i8. Called the Rinspeed Etos, it will make an appearance at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show.