BMW Group has moved one million vehicles using Automated Driving In-Plant (AFW) technology across its plants. At MINI Plant Oxford alone, the system made more than 53,000 automated movements in the past year.
The company says AFW improves production and delivers significant logistics efficiency gains. Oxford is the fourth BMW plant to use the technology after Dingolfing, Leipzig and Regensburg. Across the group, the system makes an average of around 3,500 automated movements a day.
From Pilot to Standard Application
AFW began as a pilot in Dingolfing in 2022. BMW now describes it as an established, scalable standard application to be rolled out in stages across its global network.
Production Board Member Raymond Wittmann said the network approach is central, since AFW can be adapted to different sites, vehicle architectures and processes. He said the one million movements demonstrate the system’s industrial maturity. The next rollout is at BMW Group Plant Spartanburg within the next year.
Oxford’s Cloud-Linked Setup
Oxford is the first BMW location to connect automated guided vehicles directly with existing control systems. AFW positions each vehicle beside a lifting device for a specific operation, and a cloud-based solution handles the interaction between vehicle and equipment. BMW calls it the next logical step in scaling automated movements in production.
AFW moves new vehicles without a driver in defined production and logistics areas. It combines external sensors, cloud architecture and motion planning software. LiDAR sensors capture the surroundings in real time, and artificial intelligence supports development and simulation. Dingolfing operates what BMW says is the largest LiDAR infrastructure in Europe.
Built With Embotech
AFW was developed with Swiss company Embotech and scaled through several development phases. After a multi-year partnership between Embotech and the BMW Startup Garage,
BMW i Ventures acquired a financial interest in Embotech in December 2024. BMW presents the project as a practical example of its iFACTORY vision.