Volkswagen hopes to be the first carmaker to bring a Level 4 autonomous shuttle to mass production with the help of Israeli tech startup, Mobileye. The vehicle will use the ID.Buzz as its base, while Mobileye will provide the software and the hardware.
“Bringing autonomous shuttles on the road in large quantities requires cooperation from strong partners,” said Christian Senger, head of VW’s autonomous division. “We are developing the first fully autonomous large-scale production vehicle, using Mobileye’s digital driver.”
The self-driving system will comprise 13 cameras, nine lidar sensors, five radar units, and two independent high-performance computers. The vehicle will be capable of forming a 360-degree picture of its surroundings at all times, as is standard practice for autonomous vehicles of this caliber.
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The system will be connected to the internet at all times to use swarm data from other road users and keep track of what’s happening outside of its field of view. That means that the ID. Buzz AD, as it’s called, will operate only within certain geographical areas, like cities, making it a Level 4 autonomous system, and not an unlimited Level 5 system.
Volkswagen expects that the ID. Buzz AD will be ready for use on the road starting in 2026. However, the technology will be used across the VW Group. The automaker says that the modules used by the electric minivan will also be used for Level 2+ autonomous systems and above in other models, helping to scale up the technology and drive costs down.
VW hopes its ID. Buzz ADs to be used by ride pooling companies, adding that the technology could be useful to delivery companies, which currently face driver shortages. The German carmaker adds it’s also working to develop autonomous solutions for freight companies.
VW has been working on an autonomous ID. Buzz since 2021, and says it just completed an extensive testing program in Germany and the United States.
