ONE MILLION VEHICLES MOVED WITHOUT DRIVERS.

Munich, Oxford. The BMW Group has reached another milestone on the road to digital and intelligently connected production: One million vehicles have now been moved and guided at BMW Group plants using “Automated Driving In-Plant” (AFW) technology. At MINI Plant Oxford alone, this amounts to more than 53,000 automated vehicle movements in the past year. AFW optimises the production process and delivers significant efficiency gains for logistics. The system rollout will continue, with BMW Group Plant Spartanburg next in line.

From pilot project to globally scalable standard application

MINI Plant Oxford is the fourth BMW Group plant after Dingolfing, Leipzig and Regensburg to use this technology. Since the pilot was launched in Dingolfing in 2022, AFW has progressed from an innovative technology trial to a well-established, scalable standard application that will be rolled out in stages across the BMW Group's global production network. In this way, the BMW Group is underlining its pioneering role in digital and automated production processes. An average of around 3,500 automated vehicle movements currently take place every day across the BMW Group network.

The network approach is crucial here: AFW is not an individual solution for one plant. The technology can be adapted for different sites, vehicle architectures and production processes. The industrial maturity of the application has been demonstrated by the one million automated vehicle movements already completed.

Using AFW, vehicles can respond dynamically to their surroundings. This not only includes people, but also other vehicles, driverless transport vehicles, logistics traffic and temporary obstacles.

MINI Plant Oxford is the first BMW Group location to connect automated guided vehicles directly with existing control systems. The AFW system precisely positions the vehicle next to a lifting device, where a specific operation is carried out. Automated interaction between vehicle and equipment is enabled by a cloud-based solution. This marks the next logical step in the integration and scaling of automated vehicle movements in the production environment.

Oxford provides a unique setting for this technology. The plant, considered the home of the MINI brand, can look back on more than 100 years of industrial history. Here, state-of-the-art software, sensors and cloud technologies meet a production environment that has been part of British automotive history for generations.

Technology leadership through intelligent connectivity

AFW moves new vehicles without a driver in defined production and logistics areas. The technology is based on an intelligent combination of external sensors, cloud architecture and advanced motion planning software. Along the route, LiDAR sensors constantly capture the environment, enabling secure vehicle navigation in real time. Artificial intelligence supports the continuous development, simulation and operation of this technology. At its Dingolfing plant, the BMW Group operates the largest LiDAR infrastructure in Europe. This forms the basis for automated driving manoeuvres and, at the same time, provides valuable insights for further deployment within the production network.

With its successful industrialisation of AFW, the BMW Group is not only assuming a leading role within the automotive industry. The technology it has developed is also setting cross-sector standards for automated movement and logistics processes in industrial environments.

Outlook: Further expansion of AFW across the BMW Group network

The BMW Group is continuing the systematic AFW rollout across its production network. Within the next year, the technology will also be introduced at BMW Group Plant Spartanburg. In this way, the global application will continue to expand, laying the foundation for further applications in the production environment.

With AFW, the BMW Group is systematically driving the transformation towards the digital and intelligently connected BMW iFACTORY and demonstrating how innovations can be successfully transitioned from pilot project to large-scale industrial production.

The Automated Driving In-Plant technology was developed in close collaboration with Swiss company Embotech and further scaled through several development phases. Following a multi-year partnership between Embotech and the BMW Startup Garage, which identifies and supports innovative technologies in the early stages, the company's own venture capital fund, BMW i Ventures, acquired a financial interest in Embotech in December 2024.