Volkswagen’s Self-Driving Taxis Will Use Argo AI
In a press release on the Volkswagen Newsroom, the company stated that it will use Argo AI’s self-driving system in the upcoming ID.Buzz vans. The technology, however, isn’t fully ready yet, so it may take a while for it to hit the road. Trials are already underway across a few locations in the US.
With level 4 autonomy, the taxis will be able to self-drive completely, but a driver can also take over if required. Volkswagen believes its vehicles are the best candidates to apply cutting-edge autonomous driving systems to.
The CEO of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Carsen Intra said:
With autonomous taxis on the road, Volkswagen’s goal is to “develop a ride-hailing and pooling concept” much like the one offered by MOIA.
As such, Volkswagen is designing its self-driving taxis for densely populated urban areas. This means that we will only get to see these autonomous taxis in a few big cities at first, with Volkswagen gradually expanding its network.
Ford and Volkswagen Have Invested Equally in Argo AI
To fast track the research and development process of creating good self-driving AI, both Volkswagen and Ford have invested equally in Argo AI. Both companies have invested a sum of $1 billion each.
This means that we could soon see self-driving Ford vehicles on the road as well.
Volkswagen states:
In addition to investing in Argo AI, the company is also investing money in its Car.Software organization. Even though it is a part of the Volkswagen group, Car.Software will work independently of Argo AI to develop “assisted and automated driving functions up to level 4 for the private mobility sector of all Volkswagen Group brands.”
Autonomous Cars Will Still Have a Driver
Urban environments are simply too unpredictable and dangerous for companies to launch completely driverless cars in. Keeping this in mind, Volkswagen’s self-driving taxis will also have a driver to keep things in check.
Even though there have been huge advancements in AI, it will still take some time to reach a point where it can react appropriately to every danger on an urban road.
