BMW, Mercedes put self-driving alliance on hold

FRANKFURT — Daimler said Friday it had put on hold a development alliance in the area of automated driving between its Mercedes-Benz brand and rival BMW.

“Following extensive review, the two companies have arrived at a mutual and amicable agreement to concentrate on their existing development paths, which may also include working with new partners,” Daimler said in a statement.

Daimler said the cooperation, which was announced in 2019, may resume at a later date.

BMW and Daimler said last year that they had entered into a long-term development partnership to develop highly automated driving functions to enable “hands off” autonomous driving on highways as well as automated parking.

BMW said at the time the non-exclusive cooperation was open to other automakers and technology partners.

In 2018, BMW and Daimler merged their short-term rental services Car2Go and DriveNow in a bid to create more of a presence in the developing mobility market.