The BMW Group says its Automated Driving In-Plant system has now moved one million new cars around its factories without anyone at the wheel. MINI Plant Oxford is the fourth site to adopt the technology, and BMW Group Plant Spartanburg in the US is set to follow in 2027. The system shows how carmakers are applying automated-driving tech inside their own factories, well before most of it reaches public roads.

At the BMW Group, many newly built cars now drive themselves from one point to the next before a customer ever sits in them. The group says its Automated Driving In-Plant technology, known internally as AFW, has completed one million automated vehicle movements across its production network.

The system has just gone live at MINI Plant Oxford, where more than 53,000 automated movements were recorded over the past year. Across the whole network, the company puts the current figure at around 3,500 driverless movements a day on average.

From pilot to production standard

AFW began as a pilot at BMW Group Plant Dingolfing in 2022. It has since been adopted at Leipzig and Regensburg, and now Oxford is the fourth location. BMW describes it as a standard application that can be adapted to different sites, vehicle architectures and production processes, not a one-off solution built for a single factory.

The next step is BMW Group Plant Spartanburg in South Carolina. According to the company, it will become the fifth site to run AFW in series operation from 2027.

“One million vehicles moved using automated driving technology and the deployment of this technology at four sites to date demonstrates the innovative strength and scaling capabilities of our production network. We recognised the potential of Automated Driving In-Plant early, tested it in a pilot phase and systematically developed it to series maturity. We are now rolling out this technology worldwide,” said Raymond Wittmann, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Production.

The sensors are in the building, not the car

The system’s key design choice is where the sensors sit. AFW does not rely on the car’s own driver-assistance hardware. Instead, it uses offboard sensors mounted in the plant infrastructure. LiDAR units along each route continuously scan the surroundings, and cloud-based architecture plus motion-planning software guide each car in real time.

BMW says this means any vehicle can be moved automatically, whatever its individual specification. Fixed sensors also make it easier to monitor large areas and narrow passages. The cars can react to people, other vehicles, driverless transport vehicles, logistics traffic and temporary obstacles. The company states that AFW is CE-certified for use in the production environment, and that artificial intelligence supports its development, simulation and operation.

Dingolfing is home to what BMW calls the largest LiDAR infrastructure in Europe. The group says that installation also provides data for rolling the system out further.

What is new at Oxford

Oxford is the first BMW Group plant where automated vehicle movements are linked directly to existing control systems. There, AFW parks each car precisely next to a lifting device, where a defined operation is then carried out. A cloud-based solution handles the interaction between vehicle and equipment. BMW calls this the next step in integrating automated movements into production.

Who built it

AFW was developed with Swiss company Embotech, which the BMW Group has supported since 2018 through its BMW Startup Garage programme. In December 2024, BMW’s venture capital fund, BMW i Ventures, took a financial stake in Embotech.

What it means

Public-road autonomy remains slow and heavily regulated. Inside private, controlled spaces like factories, however, automated driving is already practical, and much less complicated. BMW presents AFW as part of its BMW iFACTORY strategy for digitalised, connected production. The company also claims the system is setting cross-sector standards for automated logistics, although that is BMW’s own assessment.

AFW is currently running at Dingolfing, Leipzig, Regensburg and Oxford, with Spartanburg scheduled to follow in 2027.

Source: www.press.bmwgroup.com