EIt’s an offensive that’s set to begin on a manageable scale: Volkswagen plans to test self-driving cars in the United States for the first time this month. As the group announced on Thursday, ten copies of the electric Bulli successor ID Buzz with autonomous driving technology are to be sent onto the streets in Austin, Texas. At the same time, tests are also being carried out in Germany. The self-driving cars have been on the road in Munich for a short time, and they will soon be coming to Hamburg.
The challenge is particularly great in the USA, where VW is venturing into territory with local rivals who have a huge lead. Waymo, an affiliate of Internet giant Google in Alphabet Holdings, and Cruise, a division of automaker General Motors, already have a number of autonomous vehicles on American roads that do not require human drivers. In the VW cars, on the other hand, one person will initially sit to supervise what is happening. This should be the case until at least 2026, says Katrin Lohmann, who is leading the autonomous vehicle project in the USA, in an interview with journalists.
The year 2026 should also mark the end of the test phase and the start of commercial use of the vehicles. By then, the autonomous test fleet is expected to grow and expand beyond Austin to four other American cities.
“It is clear that we are in a catching up position,” says Christian Senger from the management of the Hanover-based group brand VW Commercial Vehicles. It plays a central role in the development of robotaxis for Europe’s largest car manufacturer VW. VW has “all the ingredients” to be “rather quickly on par with our competitors,” says Senger. It will only become clear in the second half of the decade who will prevail in the market.
setback in development
The tests with the self-propelled ID Buzz begin a good six months after VW suffered a severe setback in technology development. Argo AI, an American start-up with which VW and US competitor Ford had worked together on autonomous driving, abruptly went out of business in the fall. VW and Ford wrote off billions.
As a replacement for Argo, VW has deepened its alliance with the Israeli company Mobileye, which belongs to the American semiconductor group Intel. The development work is being carried out in Munich, among other places, where vehicles are driving around a test field near the airport, occasionally also in city traffic. The ID Buzz is built in Hanover, the normal version as well as the self-propelled one with its curved roof structure. Inside are cameras, sensors and other high-tech devices.
The automotive industry sees great market potential for the technology, especially in the business with new mobility offerings. According to McKinsey forecasts, the world market for robotic taxis and other driving services, which the customer waves to via an app and which lets the private car recede into the background, will be worth up to 860 billion dollars by 2030. The consulting firm expects self-driving cars to be the first to make a breakthrough in commercial services.
Because if there are no wage costs for drivers and the cars are on the road practically without a break, the expensive technology pays off much faster than for private individuals, who will have to wait many years for affordable, fully autonomous cars. Arno Antlitz, CFO and Chief Operating Officer of the VW Group, sees technology as a “significant profit pool”, i.e. a business area that should generate high profits.
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