Volkswagen Planning Autonomous Microbus With Argo AI By 2025

Volkswagen has been teasing its ID.Buzz for quite some time now and it now seems that it is partnering up with Argo AI 2025 to bring its retro-styled minibus to life - in a more modern electric and autonomous avatar.

Volkswagen has partnered up with the Pittsburgh based self-driving start-up which has been heavily backed by the German manufacturer alongside the Ford motor company.

The testing for the ID.Buzz vans to transport people and goods is slated to begin this summer in Munich said the two companies.

The ID.Buzz will be supporting level 5 autonomy which means that the drivers don't need to take control of the vehicle, however, it is only applicable in limited areas which are geofenced or operate in specific conditions.

Volkswagen invested in Argo AI with Ford

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Currently, the most used autonomous driving technologies are Super Cruise and Autopilot by GM and Tesla. These involve major levels of intervention from the driver who needs to have his/her hands on the wheel and pay attention. These also don't use the most advanced imaging for mapping the surroundings of the vehicles.

Google-owned Waymo has been the pioneer of self-driving technology. Its use of LiDAR and over a decade of development has made it the industry benchmark. Alongside, Waymo, AutoX, Apollo, Aurora are all startups dedicated to the development of self-driving tech. This bunch also includes Argo AI.

Argo is currently also testing Ford's vehicles in 6 cities in the US. It has also developed its own LiDAR which is a key hardware element for the development of autonomous vehicles.

Volkswagen has transformed into an electric car and self driving company after diesel gate in the US

Argo AI is also looking to go public soon. "We'll be looking at an IPO in the future as well. I think that it's one of those things where we don't know the exact source we're going to take the funding from next. We're looking at a bunch of options," said Bryan Salesky, CEO of Argo AI to Bloomberg. He even hinted that a deal with a SPAC is also on the table.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)