Billions invested – VW ID.Buzz determines the future of autonomous driving


The exciting ID.Buzz electric van has not yet been officially presented, but it is already driving on German roads – and autonomously. In black and white camouflage and with eye-catching attachments and superstructures, it looks more like a new Ghostbusters vehicle, but it actually heralds VW’s future of autonomous driving. On Sunday evening, one of the previous five copies was shown at the Volkswagen Group’s “New Auto Night” on the eve of the IAA in Munich.

VW is investing billions in the development of autonomous driving, especially in the company Argo AI with the boss Bryan Salesky, who is often referred to as “Anti-Musk”. Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess expects huge business in the autonomous driving sector in the future and especially emphasizes the environmentally friendly aspect: “On average, a private car is used for an hour a day. A robot taxi could take it to 15 hours. ”Environmentally friendly because fewer cars would have to be built if the existing ones were only used continuously. In addition, there would be an end to the traffic collapse in cities because there are simply fewer cars on the road.

But that is a long way off. First of all, the technology has to be developed and, above all, data has to be collected. And that’s exactly what happens with the Ghostbusters ID.Buzz. There are currently five vehicles on the test site at Munich Airport, and from the end of the month they will be cornering on public roads in the Bavarian capital, equipped with a combination of lidar, radar and camera systems. One goal is to map the driven area meter by meter so that autonomous cars can then travel safely on the basis of these maps. At the moment there is always a safety driver on board who can intervene at lightning speed in an emergency.

Over time, more and more such prototypes are being put into service, especially in Hamburg. It is there that the VW ID.Buzz AD (autonomous driving) series model will also go into operation from 2025, as part of the Moia driving service fleet and without a watchdog at the wheel. But also in other cities.

Most of the sensors in the prototype are also used by other companies researching autonomous driving. The eye-catching device on the roof, however, is an in-house development by Argo AI: a long-range lidar (abbreviation for light detection and ranging, a laser scanner) with a range of over 400 meters and a 360-degree all-round view. The highlight of the Argo lidar is the so-called Geiger mode, with which the system should see so sharply that it detects the smallest light particles (photons). In this way, even poorly reflective, dark objects in a dark environment are not hidden from him.

It should be possible to predict actions by pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles. The technology should once be able to interpret movements and even looks as well as a flesh-and-blood driver. “An environment recognition from fourteen cameras, six lidar and eleven radar sensors, distributed over the entire vehicle, can detect much more than a human driver from his seat,” explains Christian Senger, Head of Autonomous Driving at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. In addition, the technology is neither distracted nor drunk at the wheel.

Tests in Germany and the USA
The collaboration between Argo AI and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles in the Argo AI development center in Neufahrn near Munich is based on the parallel SDS development (SDS = Self Driving System) in America. In addition to its test track in the USA, Argo also has a nine-hectare closed course at Munich Airport in order to specifically test a large number of typical European traffic situations.

Of course, future vehicles should look less conspicuous. But to do this, the hardware has to evolve so that the components become smaller. Then they no longer look like Ghostbusters cars – but are completely inconspicuous ghost cars …