VW self-driving commercial vehicles are coming by 2030

Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer has said fully autonomous vehicles will be mainstream by 2030, after a Volkswagen-backed startup shelved its self-driving ambitions.

Schafer doubled-down on the German automaker’s commitment to autonomous cars, with its commercial vehicles division now leading development alongside its Cariad software arm in China and Bosch for global markets.

US-based startup Argo AI ceased operations last month after Volkswagen and Ford stopped investing, with the latter citing profitable Level 4 autonomous vehicles at scale is not possible in the near future.

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Both carmakers invested more than A$4 billion in 2019 into the company that previously had more than 2000 employees and was using the Volkswagen ID.Buzz electric van and Ford Escape medium SUV as test vehicles.

Argo AI previously aimed to bring the first mass-produced Level 4 autonomous vehicle for the Volkswagen Group by 2025 for Europe and the USA.

“Our goal is to offer our customers the most powerful functions at the earliest possible time and to set up our development as cost-effectively as possible," Mr Schafer told Autocar.

“The technology is available and we are driving [the ID.Buzz] in Hamburg and Munich autonomously… And there’s always the need to prove that the system drives better than a human.

"The legislation for it is enormous. It’s totally different from country to country.

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The ID Buzz in its regular, human-driven form

“You have to put focus on [autonomous driving] and that is why we are pushing so hard in the CV [commercial vehicles] division, because once it happens it opens up profit pools and opportunities. I wouldn’t say winner takes it all but it’s a game that you need to be in early. You cannot wait and then fast forward so that’s why we’re totally focusing on it.”

According to Reuters, Volkswagen is now planning to expand its partnership with Intel Mobileye to develop autonomous driving technologies after Argo AI was dropped. The Israel-based company already cooperates with Volkswagen’s Cariad software division.

Volkswagen is currently testing a Level 4 autonomous ID.Buzz autonomous driving prototype on German streets using cameras, radars and LiDAR sensors from the defunct Argo AI. Self-driving rideshare ‘robotaxi’ and delivery vans are the focus, but the carmaker also teased an autonomous ID.Buzz ambulance.

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Meanwhile, Volkswagen’s remaining autonomous subsidiary, Moia, is a mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) company offering rideshare trips in Hamburg using modified fully-electric versions of the Multivan T6 – but is currently driven by a human.

In 2020, Uber ditched its self-driving efforts amid profitability concerns and a fatal accident with a pedestrian in 2018.

Google’s Waymo spinoff and General Motors’ Cruise are other key players in the self-driving race currently testing on the roads in the USA. Like the rest of the automotive industry, autonomous driving development has been hit by the ongoing semiconductor supply shortages.