BMW will release self-driving cars in China in 2021

BMW is ramping up its driverless car efforts.

The German automaker is planning to release self-driving vehicles in China in 2021, Maximilian Doemling, senior manager for highly automated driving at BMW Group, announced over the weekend at an artificial intelligence summit in China, China Radio International first reported.

Doemling said future BMW cars will be able to drive autonomously on the highway by "pressing the button." The automaker is working with Intel and Mobileye to develop its self-driving cars.

Mobileye is an Israeli firm that develops cameras and software so cars can "see" the world around them. It's a client of General Motors, but recently ended its partnership with Tesla.

BMW is also committed to releasing an all-electric car with the autonomous capabilities in late 2021 as part of its Project i20. By 2025, the Project i20 will be fully autonomous.

The automaker is also working to complete a ride-sharing program for driverless cars by 2021, Wired reported. As of July, BMW's fleet of roughly 12 cars had driven 1.3 million miles in autonomous mode, according to the report. By comparison, Google's driverless ar fleet has driven more than 1.8 million miles in autonomous mode as of July.

H/T BMW Blog