Why did the startup Aurora and the manufacturer Volkswagen separate?
Aurora In recent years, the media attention has often surfaced, mainly because of the many cooperation agreements.
Autonomous parking of VW. Source: VW
Aurora was founded by former professionals of Google (Chris Urmson), Tesla and Over founded and focuses on the provision of autonomous driving at level 4. This is what the lidar specialist has Blackmore and you got money from Amazon,
One had one cooperation With Volkswagen and Hyundai started, but they separated from Volkswagen again, Instead, they started the collaboration With Fiat-Chrysler, Just last week it became known that Hyundai and Kia are in Aurora invest become.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen is closer ford and the conversations should be completed by summer his. Even before it was announced that Volkswagen in the active for Ford startup Argo AI will invest. Was there a connection between the cooperation between Volkswagen and Ford and the separation from Aurora?
An analyst from Navigant Research commented, stating that he believes that Aurora did not want to give Volkswagen the desired access and control. But they probably got this from Ford, respectively Argo AI. Because before the cooperation with Aurora Volkswagen wanted the startup also buy,
But Aurora wanted to stay more independent, such as Argo AI or Cruise Automation. The latter company belongs to General Motors, Independence has serious implications for the product you want to market, says Aurora. This allows you to scale on multiple vehicle platforms of different brands and models.
Hyundai uses the Aurora Driver, the name for the level 4 technology, for the fuel cell car Nexo. From 2021 Hyundai wants to promote the serial commercialization of technology.
Volkswagen and Ford have similar goals and are currently doing one change towards the mobility provider. Aurora did not want to tie up and that is how the joint work with Volkswagen ended.
Also the cooperation between Honda and Waymo probably ended whether of lack of access to technology. Therefore, Honda is now included Cruise Automation boarded.
source (English)
About David Fluhr
I’ve been writing about Autonomous & Connected Driving since 2011 and also talk about it on other sites like the Smart Mobility Hub. I studied social sciences at the HU Berlin and since 2012 I am a freelance journalist. Contact: mail@autonomes-fahren.de