Like many automakers, Volkswagen is faced with the challenge of developing autonomous driving technology. The company has established subsidiary Volkswagen Autonomy GmbH to handle that task. With headquarters in Munich and Wolfsburg, the subsidiary’s goal is to bring a self-driving system to market that can be used in all the group’s brands.
Their first use of the technology is planned for the commercial sector… including robo taxis and robo vans. Alexander Hitzinger, Senior Vice President for autonomous driving in the Volkswagen Group will manage the subsidiary. He says, "we expect self-driving systems to be used in the commercial sector at a large scale from around the middle of the next decade".
In July, the Volkswagen Group announced plans to work with Ford in the field of autonomous driving. That includes a stake in ARGO AI, which specializes in developing software for autonomous driving. Volkswagen Autonomy GmbH will also be setting up operations in Silicon Valley in 2020 and China in 2021.
