Self-driving cars have been the purview of science fiction for decades, from I, Robot’s self-piloting vehicles with a manual option to Total Recall’s JohnnyCabs that snarkily tell you that you’ve reached your destination. While we aren’t quite there yet, level 2 semi-autonomous vehicles are already a reality, and the technology is continuing to advance faster than we might have believed. Let’s take a look at the future of BMW and it’s self-driving cars, now that the luxury car giant is joining the autonomous vehicle movement.

An Autonomous BMW 7 Series

BMW’s new self-driving luxury car isn’t a new model — it’s a modified 7 Series equipped with eight cameras, five LIDAR systems, and more hardware than you can shake an extremely expensive stick at. Most self-driving cars rely on either cameras or LIDAR, making BMW one of the first to combine the two. It maps the world around it, identifying and tracking other vehicles on the road so it can figure out where everyone else is going.

The prototype 7 Series has a full computer wired into the trunk of the car to keep track of everything — which will also be a part of the final development model, though that one will include hardware from Intel and Mobileye, among others.

An Even More Comfortable Interior

While BMW’s are known for their comfort and luxury, once we make the transition to fully autonomous vehicles, automotive manufacturers will need to focus even more on their vehicle interiors. Drivers won’t be buying automobiles for the driving experience anymore — instead, they’ll choose their daily drivers based on how comfortable the ride is. This will require new and more inventive textiles and interior designs to keep drivers from choosing another brand that might offer more comfortable seating — or even the opportunity to recline and sleep as their autonomous car carries them to their destination.

Forget the Trolley Problem

One of the biggest challenges facing self-driving car programmers is teaching these vehicles to make decisions like a human driver would. The Trolley Problem is one example of this — there’s a runaway trolley, and you can switch the track that it’s on. On one track, there are five people, and on the other track, there’s only one. Do you kill one person to save five?

Instead of trying to program human-like reactions into their self-driving cars, BMW is teaching them like you would teach a child the rules of the road.

“The cars of the future don’t need rigid programs — they need a kind of artificial intelligence that learns with every mile and takes the owner’s habits into account,” said Klaus Frohlich, a member of the Board of Management for BMW Group.

This new approach will create an AI to handle independent driving decisions, learning more the further it goes.

The Future of Autonomous BMW’s

The production version of BMW’s self-driving SUV won’t hit showroom floors until 2021, and it’s entirely possible that it won’t be fully autonomous when it does — but it’s a step in the right direction. Autonomous vehicles could save hundreds of thousands of lives a year by preventing accidents if they become more readily available. We might not be too far away from hailing a ride in a JohnnyCab after all.