"BMW can, therefore, develop autonomous driving solutions that fit better with the specific driving conditions in China.”
BMW said the new computing centre would leverage Tencent's cloud computing and big data, and provide the automaker with infrastructure needed to develop the autonomous cars.
The Munich-headquartered automaker says it will likely introduce semi-autonomous, or L3 classification, cars in China in 2021, which will need massive computing power to analyse real-time flow of digital information on road and traffic conditions.
Driverless cars need sophisticated data-crunching capabilities as they rely on so-called artificial-intelligence, or neuro-network technology, to help them “learn” from experience and could eventually drive themselves without human intervention.
BMW’s planned Chinese computing centre follows the opening earlier this year of a similar facility in Munich.