Just one week after Volkswagen announced the testing program of autonomous ID. Buzz prototypes in Austin, Texas, the fleet expands to the other side of the Atlantic, in Munich, Germany.
The first test runs on public roads will start sometime in the next few weeks. Government representatives, journalists, public authorities, and business people will occupy the passenger seats, getting a taste of the autonomous future. While the ID. Buzz AD (Autonomous Driving) will be driving itself, a human driver will be sitting behind the wheel at all times to supervise the system, making sure that everything goes according to plan.
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The electric vans wear the same black and yellow livery as the ones testing in the US. The also have a four-seater cabin, and feature Mobileye’s self-driving system. The extra hardware compared to standard ID.Buzz models include roof-mounted cameras, radar, and lidar. Those are enough to reach Level 4 autonomy, which is just one step away from full autonomy (Level 5).
VW says that the prototypes can be made in large quantities once they are ready for series production. The growing test fleet in Europe and North America contributes to data collection from various driving scenarios in urban environments. The goal is to expand the fleet for commercial use (ridesharing and transport services) in more cities in Europe and North America.
In Germany, the first company to take advantage of the ID. Buzz AD prototypes is MOIA, which has been a VW Group subsidiary since 2019. The narrative is different in North America, where the autonomous vehicles will be operated by “external companies from the mobility and transport sector”, thus not affiliated with VW.
