Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has been advancing its autonomous vehicle development with the all-electric Volkswagen ID Buzz AD (Autonomous Driving). In the coming weeks, this vehicle will undergo road tests, offering stakeholders — including politicians, public officials, business leaders, and media representatives — an opportunity to understand its autonomous capabilities.

In addition to its European test program, Volkswagen has initiated a parallel testing regime in Austin, Texas. The focus of the AD vehicle development remains on its potential commercial applications in urban settings in Europe and North America, intending to integrate these vehicles into ridesharing and transport services.

Christian Senger, a board member responsible for the development of autonomous driving at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, commented: “Expanding our autonomous vehicle programme to North America is the next step in our global strategic roadmap and the result of a long-term investment. This will help us to test, validate and refine the technology on American roads as well.”

Volkswagen aims to grow its commercial transport services and enhance the group’s mobility options.

These all-electric ID Buzz vehicles are technologically advanced, integrating a self-driving system from tech firm Mobileye. As part of the ongoing testing, the fleet is gathering data across diverse driving conditions, with each vehicle (categorised as level 4 under the SAE standards) fortified with cameras, radar, and lidar technology. Notably, during all test runs, a human supervisor remains present in the vehicle.

Volkswagen autonomous ID Buzz research vehicle
An earlier research vehicle.

Once ready for mass production, the ID Buzz will be able to accommodate up to four passengers to meet growing mobility and transport requirements.

Volkswagen’s experience in understanding passenger preferences and operator requirements should stand them in good stead for fleet development. Its subsidiary, MOIA, has been a ridesharing service provider since 2019 and has successfully transported over 8.5 million passengers. Insights and data from MOIA are also feeding into the ongoing development process.

The launch of the testing programme in Texas at the Volkswagen Group of America (VWGoA) marks a further boost for the Volkswagen Group’s global research and development of autonomous vehicles. VWGoA will lead the strategy and business development in the US and has established a subsidiary called Volkswagen ADMT, LLC to support the roll-out of its autonomous vehicle programme with teams in Belmont, California and Austin, Texas.

Unlike in Germany, where MOIA will be the first to use autonomous vehicles, Volkswagen will not operate autonomous driving services itself in the US in the future; instead, this will be done by external companies from the mobility and transport sector.

Phil Huff
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