The BMW Group today celebrated the official opening of its autonomous driving campus in Unterschleissheim, Germany. Klaus Frohlich, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Development and Research, and Bavarian State Premier Markus Soder were present for the inauguration of a forward-looking development facility that showcases the BMW Group's transformation into a tech company.

The BMW Group's campus for autonomous driving is a state-of-the-art centre of excellence that covers every base when it comes to offering greater capacity for innovation and increased development efficiency, and ultimately securing the company's future sustainability.

15 months ago, the BMW Group took the decision to pool together its development expertise in the fields of vehicle connectivity and highly/fully automated driving at a single location. The campus, which offers 23,000m² of office space with room for 1,800 employees, was completed in record time.

The site's optimum infrastructure, its proximity to the Research and Innovation Centre, and the nearby link to the motorway network helped to swing the decision in its favour.

The BMW Group is intending to drive forward development of highly automated vehicles with the new campus in Unterschleissheim, and is looking to recruit IT specialists and software developers in the areas of artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analysis.

The autonomous driving campus is opening its doors to 'new working environments' - an open-plan layout, intelligent and flexible use of office space, and a multifaceted and creative workplace. The benefits for the development experts employed here are clear; flexibility, efficiency, a high level of autonomy and short distances. 

New working environments go hand in hand with a new employee and management culture, and managers work in the same open-plan office spaces as their staff. This enhances interaction and facilitates communications, resulting in effective teamwork in the development of highly complex products.

The BMW Group is also the first company in the automotive industry to apply the agile working model systematically and universally for an entire specialist area - in this case across autonomous driving and driver assistance, from the research phase all the way through to series production development.

The open campus structure offers excellent conditions and exceptional support for scrum teams, and therefore lends itself perfectly to the agile software development process.

Scrum teams have an interdisciplinary structure, meaning that a variety of skills are brought together. They handle complex sub-processes, working independently with an end-to-end approach. The high degree of flexibility allows the teams to react quickly and effectively to new requirements.