Volkswagen will start testing its driverless ID. Buzz in Austin, Texas

Enlarge / If you go to Austin, you might see one of these ID. Buzzes out for a drive. (credit: Volkswagen)

Volkswagen Group has picked Austin, Texas, as the location for its first autonomous driving program in North America. In July, the automaker is deploying some of its ID. Buzz electric vans to the city, outfitted with Mobileye’s autonomous driving tech to start a three-year pilot program. However, unlike in Germany, VW has no plans to build its own ride hailing service here; instead, it’s developing autonomous ID. Buzzes for use by fleets. Back in 2016—before the ID. Buzz was even the ID. Buzz—VW created a new brand ride-hailing company called Moia, which has been testing autonomously driven electric vans on the streets of Hamburg for several years now.

Things have not gone entirely smoothly. In 2019 VW Group invested $2.6 billion in Argo AI, an autonomous vehicle startup backed by Ford. At the time, Argo’s self-driving stack was to be incorporated into future autonomous VWs as well as autonomous Fords. But Ford’s original timeline of launching a commercial level 4 autonomous vehicle ride-hailing service by 2021 fell by the wayside, and in October last year VW and Ford decided to shutter Argo, just a month after it started offering autonomous ride hailing with Lyft.

At the time VW said it was consolidating its autonomous driving research activities, including programs with Bosch in Europe and Horizon Robotics in China.