More driverless cars will be on the roads in Austin as Volkswagen joins the ranks of companies testing self-driving technology in the city.
Austin will mark Volkswagen’s first self-driving testing program in the U.S. The company will test its technology with a small fleet of ID.Buzz electric vehicles equipped with self-driving technology developed by Volkswagen and self-driving company Mobileye.
The company will start with two vehicles immediately and plans to expand to 10 by the end of the year. Volkswagen also said it plans to expand to at least four U.S. cities over the next three years, while also expanding its test fleet in Austin. The autonomous vehicle technology includes cameras, radar and lidar technology, and in the initial testing phase, each vehicle will have a human driver supervising at all times, the company said.
The Austin tests come as Volkswagen works internationally to improve its autonomous vehicle technology, software and related technologies. The company is already testing autonomous technology in Europe with the ID. Buzz, a vehicle designed to resemble a 1960s Volkswagen van.
The company aims to offer its fleet of ID.Buzz self-driving vehicles as a comprehensive service in the future, which could also include providing fleet management and remote guidance solutions to other mobility and transportation companies. Volkswagen said it is not currently building a dedicated ride-hailing service of its own.
In Austin, Volkswagen will test its vehicles in geofenced areas that include east and downtown Austin, with plans to eventually expand outside of those areas.
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Katrin Lohmann, president of Volkswagen’s Autonomous Driving and Transportation as a Service group for Mobility, said Austin was chosen as the first U.S. testing site because of its history of embracing innovation and its favorable environment for testing autonomous vehicles.
Roman said the company wants to partner with the people of Austin and keep them informed about the company’s testing operations.
The self-driving cars won’t be available to the public, at least not initially. Roman said the company plans to run a comprehensive program over the next year, conduct testing with a “closed user group” of interested parties next year, and then expand to a commercial offering in the form of ride-hailing or goods delivery in 2026. Company representatives said the plan is to target both services in parallel, with both ideally available in 2026.
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What other self-driving cars are there in Austin?
In Texas, a law passed in 2017 regulates self-driving cars, allowing them to be operated without a driver in the vehicle, as long as they obey traffic laws, are insured like any other car, and are equipped with video recording devices. The manufacturer is held responsible for any collisions or violations of traffic laws. Prior to this law, there was no state law banning self-driving cars.
Volkswagen joins a number of companies, including Waymo and Cruise, that are currently testing self-driving technology in Austin, which has become a hotbed of self-driving technology in recent years, with several companies conducting testing in the city since 2016.
Google subsidiary Waymo, one of the first companies to test self-driving cars in Central Texas earlier this year, announced it would return to the state to test its electric Jaguar I-Pace. At the time, the company said it would test a small fleet of vehicles in central and east Austin, including downtown, Rainey Street, Capitol, Holly, Clarksville, Bouldin Creek and the Market District. Waymo offers ride-hailing services in Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco, but has no plans to expand to Austin.
Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors, has been testing self-driving car technology in Austin since last fall and began offering ride-hailing services to the public in December. During South by Southwest in March, the company announced it would test its self-driving, pedal-less Origin Taxi in Austin. The vehicle will not be available to the public initially, but the company said the shuttle-like vehicle could be unveiled “in the coming months.”
Ford- and Volkswagen-backed Argo AI also tested self-driving technology in Austin starting in 2019 before closing down last year, including in ride-hailing and delivery partnerships with Lyft and Walmart. In Austin, Argo laid off 78 employees in 2022. Argo AI partnered with Ford to conduct testing with the goal of using Austin as a proving ground for self-driving technology. At the time of the closure, Argo AI said some employees would have the opportunity to work on self-driving technology at Ford or Volkswagen.
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Volkswagen also plans to expand its teams and hire former Argo employees in Austin and Belmont, Calif., as part of its self-driving tests. Christian Zenger, a member of the board of directors for Volkswagen’s commercial vehicles division, said the expanding self-driving car business could include Argo employees, who would bring work skills and knowledge to Volkswagen’s self-driving car business.
Volkswagen’s new self-driving operation will launch in many of the same regions where Argo has previously tested, but Zenger said Volkswagen will take a different approach. Zenger also said that expanding Volkswagen’s self-driving car program to North America marks the next step in the company’s global roadmap for self-driving car technology.
“We’re following in Argo’s footsteps, but with a completely different technology setup and a slightly different business approach,” Senger said.
