Volkswagen Group of America (VWGoA) begins its first autonomous vehicle testing program in Austin in July 2023.
Courtesy: Vokswagen AG
Volkswagen said Thursday it will start testing self-driving electric vehicles in Austin, Texas later this month.
The German automotive giant has announced that by the tip of 2023 it will deploy around 10 of its ID Buzz electric vans equipped with autonomous driving systems developed in cooperation with Mobileye. The primary two of these vans are already in the US and will begin testing before the tip of July, it said.
The ID Buzz self-driving vans are equipped with lidar, radar and camera systems. Volkswagen said the vehicles are geofenced, meaning they will only operate in specific areas of town which were rigorously mapped.
For now, all of the corporate’s autonomous vehicles will have drivers chargeable for human safety on board in the course of the tests.
“We selected Austin as the primary hub in the US because town has a track record of innovation and offers a positive climate for testing autonomous vehicles,” said Katrin Lohmann, executive director of Volkswagen’s autonomous driving activities in the US
Lohmann said the corporate expects to expand its Austin fleet and add test operations in at the very least 4 more US cities over the subsequent three years.
Volkswagen Group of America (VWGoA) begins its first autonomous vehicle testing program in Austin in July 2023.
Courtesy: Vokswagen AG
The move is the most recent in a series of steps the auto giant has taken to revamp its autonomous driving strategy in recent months, including a deeper partnership with Mobileye and recent investments in MOIA, its European ride-sharing service.
While the corporate is working on a robotaxi service in Europe, it has no plans for its own ride-sharing service in the USA at the moment. As an alternative, it plans to supply ID Buzz autonomous vans and fleet management capabilities to other corporations offering ride-sharing or delivery services.
Along with Ford engineVolkswagen was an investor in the now defunct Pittsburgh-based start-up Argo AI. For some time, Argo was considered a pacesetter in the race to develop fully autonomous vehicles – but Ford and Volkswagen decided to shut the corporate in October 2022, citing rising costs and differences in strategy.
Ford in March launched a recent subsidiary called Latitude AI to expand its BlueCruise hands-free highway driving system. This unit includes roughly 550 employees who previously worked for Argo AI.
He said Volkswagen also hired some former Argo AI employees for its self-driving efforts in the US.
Volkswagen Group of America (VWGoA) begins its first autonomous vehicle testing program in Austin in July 2023.
Courtesy: Vokswagen AG