The race is on to develop an autonomous vehicle (AV) that is safer than a human driver—and one automaker is coming closer.

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By joining forces with Ansys, the global leader in engineering simulation, the BMW Group has developed the first-ever end-to-end tool chain specifically guided by safety principles to develop and validate ADAS and automated/autonomous driving functions.

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Through this collaboration, the BMW Group is leveraging Ansys' unique simulation capabilities to become one of the first automotive manufacturers to offer SAE Level 3 highly automated driving to consumers. The collaboration is key to quickly addressing advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and AV system reliability and significantly speed time to market.

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As shown in SAE J3016™, the transition from SAE Level 2 to Level 3 is significant. With state-of-the-art software solutions that are cloud-native, scalable, fit for massive data, open and extensible, the partnership between BMW and Ansys has resulted in an automated simulation tool chain that supports the mass generation of safety relevant scenarios and related analytics to validate AV system performance.

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We sat down with Nicolas Orand, Senior R&D Director of Autonomous Product Line at Ansys, and Rene Grosspietsch, Business Development Autonomous Driving at BMW Group, to discuss their ground-breaking partnership, the critical role of simulation in achieving SAE Level 3 autonomy, and the path to fully autonomous driving.

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