VW’s going all-in on self-driving car tech and it’s doing it in-house. Volkswagen
Not only is developing self-driving car technology incredibly difficult, but it’s also expensive. That has led many car companies to partner up with smaller, self-driving car-specific startups. Ford and Argo or Honda and Cruise, for example. But, according to a report published Tuesday by Automotive News Europe, not the Volkswagen group.
Instead, the parent company of VW, Audi and Porsche will take the majority of its development in-house, and it’s got Alphabet’s self-driving company Waymo in its sights. This is a big deal because it means that not only will VW have full control over its product development, it will also be able to license the tech to other companies.
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VW isn’t the only German automaker to go it alone when it comes to self-driving car tech. Daimler (parent company of Mercedes-Benz) has been working on its own platform for a while now.
Currently, no manufacturer offers a Level 4 or Level 5 autonomous vehicle for sale to the public, but several developers have been successfully testing fully driverless cars on public roads, including Waymo and Cruise.
Source: shepherdgazette.com