Volkswagen has announced that it will begin testing self-driving cars in the U.S. with a driverless version of its ID Buzz electric microbus. The new fleet of vehicles is due to be tested on public roads in Austin, Texas, starting later this month.
The announcement came months after Volkswagen, along with Ford, withdrew funding from Argo AI, a self-driving startup that was set to launch a robotaxi service in the U.S. and Europe. The loss of funding forced Argo to shut down, casting a pall over the self-driving industry, which has struggled for more than a decade to build a business model around self-driving cars.
VW initially planned to use Argo’s technology for its self-driving ID Buzz microbuses. But now the company is developing the hardware and software in-house with partner Mobileye. The plan is to test the vehicles in Austin and four other U.S. cities over the next three years, aiming to launch a robotaxi service in 2026. The three-row U.S.-market ID Buzz, which debuted last month, is scheduled to go on sale in 2024.
The announcement comes months after VW withdrew its funding from Argo AI.
As part of the plan, VW will create a new subsidiary, Volkswagen ADMT, with offices in Austin and Belmont, California. The new unit will be staffed by former Argo employees who stayed on after the startup closed. The company said the self-driving ID Buzz vehicles, with their fleet management and “remote guidance solutions,” will also be sold to “other leading companies in the mobility and transportation sector.” This is the second time the company has created a new subsidiary to work on autonomous driving.
The company is testing the self-driving ID Buzz in Germany and plans to launch a commercial robotaxi and delivery service in 2025. VW says the vans will operate as part of the ride-hailing fleet of its subsidiary Moia, which has been operating a fleet of electric cars as part of a “ridepooling” service in Hamburg since 2017. VW’s self-driving software is developed by another subsidiary, Cariad, which has undergone multiple leadership changes over the past year.
The company is testing the autonomous ID Buzz in Germany.
The first 10 ID Buzz minibuses will be equipped with autonomous driving software developed in partnership with Mobileye, an Intel subsidiary that produces driver assistance sensors and software, as well as cameras, radar, LIDAR and other sensors. Each vehicle will also have a trained safety driver behind the wheel to oversee the vehicle’s operation and take over control if the vehicle encounters an undriveable situation.
Some of VW’s rivals are much further ahead, including GM’s Cruise and Hyundai’s Motional, both of which have already launched early commercial robotaxi services in the US and are planning to expand to new markets.
