Volkswagen recently tried to acquire self-driving car startup Aurora Innovation. However, Aurora Innovation wants to continue operating in the market as an independent company, so the deal fell through.
Aurora Innovation is an American company developing technology for autonomous vehicles. The company was founded by Alphabet's former chief technology officer for self-driving cars Chris Urmson, Tesla's former head of the Autopilot team Sterling Anderson and former member of Uber's Advanced Technology Center Drew Bagnell. Aurora autonomous vehicles have been tested in the US state of California since August 2017.
Mobility-as-a-Service
Volkswagen announced in January that it was entering into a partnership with Aurora Innovation. By joining forces, the companies aim to accelerate the development of self-driving vehicles and make such vehicles available in cities. For the latter, the companies are setting up a service called Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), which allows users to order self-driving vehicles. In this, users only pay for the use of the vehicle and do not have to invest in its purchase.
Ordering an autonomous vehicle through MaaS can be done through various devices. For instance, a mobile app, digital assistant and the Volkswagen OneButton will be launched for this purpose. Volkswagen OneButton is a key-sized device that can be used to order a vehicle at the touch of a button. Users' location is determined via GPS and automatically transmitted to the ordered vehicle.
Catching up with competitors
However, this partnership does not go far enough for Volkswagen, according to Bloomberg sources - who wish to remain anonymous as the information is not allowed to be disclosed. The company reportedly wants to acquire a specialist in autonomous vehicles to catch up with competitors. Indeed, other manufacturers are also betting on such technology. For instance, Ford has invested a billion dollars in AI company Argo AI and General Motors acquired Cruise Automation in 2016 for over a billion dollars to own such technology.
Volkswagen held talks with Aurora Innovation, according to Bloomberg sources. However, the deal fell through as Aurora wants to continue operating as an independent company and work with multiple carmakers. For instance, besides Volkswagen, Hyundai is also working with the US company. Hyundai announced in January that it wanted to use Aurora's technology to launch a Level 4 self-driving car in 2021. This vehicle can drive on autopilot in almost all conditions; only in bad weather conditions does a human need to take over control of the vehicle. Characteristically, Level 4 is also the first level where drivers can focus their attention on other things and do not need to be able to take immediate control of the vehicle at all times, which is the case with lower levels.
Share cars in Berlin
Volkswagen also announced this week that it will invest 3.5 billion euros in Transform 2025+, a project on connected vehicles. Transform 2025+ aims to transform the car into a hub for the Internet of Things, including by equipping it with an operating system and network infrastructure. As part of this project, the company has launched 'We Share', a shared car project that will initially be rolled out in Berlin. Volkswagen aims to have around 1,500 all-electric e-Golfs driving around the German capital by 2019 as part of We Share. In time, this fleet will be expanded by 500 e-Ups.
The carmaker is deliberately choosing to roll out the project initially in Berlin, as many residents of this city have encountered shared cars before. By 2020, the project should also be rolled out to other cities in both Europe and North America. The primary focus here will be on cities with more than a million inhabitants.
New digital ecosystem
We Share is part of Volkswagen We, a new digital ecosystem of the Volkswagen Group. As part of this ecosystem, the company is launching a new operating system for its cars: the Volkswagen Operating System (vw.OS). This operating system provides a clear separation between hardware and software, which, according to the carmaker, makes it easier to update software. In addition, Volkswagen calls vw.OS an important step towards autonomous driving.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Source: Volkswagen
Source: Aurora Innovation
Source photo: Pixabay / renehesse
