BMW passes one million cars moved driverless inside its plants

BMW passes one million cars moved driverless inside its plants

27 October 2026: BMW Group says one million new vehicles have now been moved without a driver inside its factories by its Automated Driving In-Plant system, and that MINI Plant Oxford has become the fourth site to use it. The technology moves finished cars through defined production and logistics areas using sensors fixed in the plant rather than in the car. BMW says about 3,500 such movements take place every day across its network, and more than 53,000 took place at Oxford in the past year.

"We are now rolling out this technology worldwide," said Raymond Wittmann, the member of BMW AG's board responsible for production.

How the system works

The system, which BMW abbreviates as AFW, combines external sensors, a cloud architecture and motion planning software. LiDAR sensors along the route capture the surroundings continuously, and the car is steered in real time around people, other vehicles, driverless transport vehicles, logistics traffic and temporary obstacles. BMW says artificial intelligence supports the development, simulation and operation of the system, and that its Dingolfing plant operates the largest LiDAR installation in Europe.

BMW stresses that AFW is not a one-plant solution: it says the technology can be adapted to different sites, vehicle architectures and production processes, and that the million movements already completed show it has reached industrial maturity. Wittmann described it as a prime example of turning the company's BMW iFACTORY plan for digital, connected production into everyday practice.

What Oxford adds

Oxford is the first BMW site to connect automated guided vehicles directly with existing control systems. There, AFW positions a car precisely beside a lifting device where an operation is carried out, and the interaction between vehicle and equipment runs through a cloud-based solution. BMW calls this the next step in integrating automated movements into production.

The pilot began at Dingolfing in 2022, followed by Leipzig and Regensburg. BMW says the technology will be introduced at Plant Spartanburg in the United States within the next year.

The start-up behind it

AFW was developed with Embotech, a Swiss company, and scaled through several development phases after a multi-year partnership with the BMW Startup Garage. BMW i Ventures, the carmaker's venture fund, took a financial stake in Embotech in December 2024.

For manufacturers weighing similar projects, BMW's numbers give a benchmark of what infrastructure-based automation can do at scale, though the release gives no figures for cost or time saved. We list the BMW Group, and our industrial automation category holds 49 companies; Embotech is not yet among them.

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• Taisei and TIER IV test three self-driving cars in a tunnel for Japan's MLIT
• Pony.ai unveils a Gen-4 driverless heavy truck with GAC at IAA

Sources

• BMW Group PressClub: One million vehicles moved without drivers, BMW Group successfully scales automated driving in production, 27 October 2026