Herbert Diess
The Volkswagen CEO assumes that the share of the business with driving services will grow strongly.
(Photo: Reuters)
Munich According to Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess, the automotive industry will change fundamentally as a result of software-based mobility services and self-driving cars. “Autonomous driving will change our industry like nothing else before,” said Diess on Sunday evening at an event in the run-up to the IAA Mobility automobile fair in Munich. In contrast, the switch to electromobility that has just started is comparatively easy.
The real turning point will only come when an ever larger part of the business is done with ridesharing services and robotic taxis. In 2030, 85 percent of sales will probably still be made with the conventional sale of cars, car sharing and rental cars. 15 percent then probably came from mobility services. This area will grow faster than any other.
Two years ago, Volkswagen teamed up with the second largest US automaker, Ford, to advance this technology. In addition, the Wolfsburg-based company put a total of 2.6 billion dollars into the Ford subsidiary Argo. The Lower Saxony brought in their own activities in autonomous driving, valued at 1.6 billion dollars, as well as one billion dollars for start-up financing.
At the event, Argo founder Bryan Salesky said the goal was to develop a global system for robotic taxis. The company is currently testing such vehicles in six cities in the United States. The technology has recently also been tested on a site near Munich Airport.
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The newly developed electric bulli, the ID.Buzz, is used, which is equipped with sensors, camera systems and a laser scanner (lidar) from Argo, which scans the area around the car within a radius of 400 meters. A prototype was shown at the IAA event. The series version of the ID.Buzz AD1 (Autonomous Driving) is to be used in mobility services such as Moia in Hamburg from 2025.
More: VW boss Herbert Diess believes that digitization will pay off for the car manufacturer. The Group’s return is expected to increase significantly by 2025.