Audi will no longer be driving the Artemis project, a key program within the Volkswagen group for the development of new technologies for autonomous driving. The Wolfsburg giant would be reviewing the organization of programs around software development to make the company more competitive and ready for innovations in this area already by the end of the decade, filling the gap with brands like Tesla. In this sense, the delays accumulated by the Artemis project under the leadership of Audi have pushed VW to consider eliminating this program which will be submitted to the Supervisory Board of the German giant on December 15th, under the direction of the new CEO Oliver Blume.
The VW group’s commercial vehicle unit will be the first of the group’s brands to launch autonomous vehicles, using VW’s software autonomous driving developed by Cariad. The unit is testing a fleet of ID Buzz self-driving electric minivans in Israel as part of its partnership with Mobileye. This will not lead Audi to abandon the project of a premium car equipped with self-driving technology but at this point times could dilate. According to the new Volkswagen Group schedule, the software platforms under the Artemis program 1.1 and 1.2 will continue to be developed, with the 1.2 platform renamed “Premium Software”. The latter will be used by the House of the Four Rings and by Porsche while the second architecture will be used by mass-market brands.
It will arrive by 2026 a new vehicle platform which is under development by the Zuffenhausen brand: it will be presented in 2026 and will form the basis for a new 100% electric sports SUV that will be at the top of the range, above the Cayenne and Macan. This platform, renamed SSP61, will also be the basis for the new Audi A8 and the cars currently known under the code names Landjet and Landyacht, also under the Audi brand. Initially these cars will have advanced software but not self-driving level 4, with this which could be implemented with OTA updates from 2028. On the contrary, the VW branded car that will arise from the Trinity project will already integrate the 2.0 software.
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