Autonomous driving with the Volkswagen e-Golf

Volkswagen AG announced the foundation of Volkswagen Autonomy GmbH (VWAT GmbH) with headquarters in Munich and Wolfsburg. Another subsidary in Silicon Valley will follow in 2020. A further subsidiary is planned in China in 2021. As a centre of excellence for autonomous driving from Level 4, VWAT will serve to build up know-how within the Group and bring a self-driving system (SDS) to market maturity. The company will be managed by Alexander Hitzinger, Senior Vice President for autonomous driving in the Volkswagen Group and Member of the Volkswagen Brand Board of Management responsible for Technical Development at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWCV). VWCV in Hanover is the leading brand within the Group for Autonomous Driving, Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), and Transport-as-a-Service (TaaS).

Mobility solutions for people and goods in urban areas will be the first application case for the SDS from Volkswagen Autonomy GmbH. In July, the Volkswagen Group announced closer cooperation in the field of autonomous driving with Ford which, subject to official approvals, includes a stake in ARGO AI, a company specialised in the software development for autonomous driving. ARGO AI and VWAT will work closely together on the realisation of the self-driving system (SDS). In the development of the SDS VWAT will put a strong focus on systems engineering and industrialisation. The aim is to establish an SDS as a standard module for all Group brands in future.