Volkswagen is preparing for the sale of autonomous vehicles in the near future. The ID Buzz, the fully electric retro passenger bus, kicks off. Both with tests and ultimately in practice.
Volkswagen is currently working on two projects on autonomous driving. On the one hand there is Car.Software that works on autonomous driving for the passenger cars of the Volkswagen Group, on the other hand there is Argo AI, which belongs to VW’s commercial vehicle division. Argo is now getting ready for field tests with the ID Buzz. We know this – in concept form – as a passenger version and a delivery version and according to Volkswagen it is apparently an ideal test object for commercial vehicles. Volkswagen calls them ‘Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) and we can count these as’ robo taxis’ and vans. Cars that will be fully autonomous in urban areas for passenger and goods transport.
This year, prototypes of the ID Buzz will hit the road in Germany to test Argo AI technology in practice. They should then drive around independently, of course with people on board. The fact that Germany has relaxed the legislation on autonomous driving undoubtedly plays a crucial role. Volkswagen also promises that next year we will be presented with the production version of the ID Buzz. It also already has Argo AI’s Self Driving System (SDS) on board, although it may have to wait a bit longer before it can be used on a large scale. By the way, Volkswagen already announced over a year ago that the ID Buzz at the World Cup in Qatar will also drive around autonomously for passenger transport.