BMW's AFW technology hits one million driverless vehicle movements worldwide

BMW Group has reached a new milestone in factory automation, with more than one million vehicle movements completed using its Automated Driving In-Plant (AFW) technology across its global production network.

Notably, the historic century-old MINI Oxford plant in the UK has completed over 53,000 automated vehicle movements over the past year alone.

What began as a pilot project has now become an established part of BMW's production operations, helping the group move newly built cars around its factories without a driver behind the wheel.

What is AFW?

Unlike driver assistance systems designed for public roads, BMW's AFW technology is built specifically for factory environments. It allows vehicles to move autonomously through designated production and logistics areas.

Rather than relying on expensive autonomous-driving hardware fitted to each car, the system uses sensors installed around the factory, cloud-based infrastructure and motion-planning software.

LiDAR sensors monitor the surrounding environment in real time, allowing the system to detect and navigate around pedestrians, other vehicles, industrial transport equipment and temporary obstacles.

Because the key sensors are part of the factory infrastructure, the technology can be used with different vehicle models and specifications without requiring each car to carry its own dedicated sensor suite.

BMW says the system has also obtained CE certification, supporting its wider deployment across the group's production facilities.

One million automated movements

BMW began testing AFW at its Dingolfing plant in Germany in 2022. Since then, the technology has been refined and rolled out to more production sites, reaching one million automated vehicle movements across the group's global network.

The system now handles around 3,500 vehicle movements a day on average.

Beyond Dingolfing, AFW is already in regular operation at BMW plants in Leipzig and Regensburg in Germany, as well as MINI's Oxford plant in the UK. Oxford was the first site to integrate automated vehicle movements with existing control systems, enabling the cars to work with lifts during specific operations.

Future outlook

Raymond Wittmann, BMW Group's board member responsible for production, said, "Automated Driving In-Plant is a prime example of how we are translating the vision of the BMW iFACTORY into industrial practice and driving the efficiency, digitalisation and intelligent connectivity across our production."

BMW plans to introduce the technology at its Spartanburg plant in South Carolina in 2027. This would make it the fifth site to use AFW in regular production operations.

The group is expected to continue expanding the system to more factories as it looks for further ways to automate vehicle logistics and streamline production.