"Volkswagen (VW) has established its own autonomous vehicle (AV) subsidiary, VWAT GmbH. In July 2019, VW invested $2.6B in Agro AI. VW plans to take the learnings from Agro AI and Audi’s Autonomous Intelligent Driving into VWAT, to speed up its AV development to compete with the perceived front runners like GM Cruise, Google Waymo and Tesla. Combining the strengths of different companies into one, coupled with adequate funding, will bolster VW’s efforts to accelerate its AV development strategy. The formation of VWAT also indicates VW’s interest to develop key AV technologies and implement them across the portfolio. However, VW is behind rivals, Waymo and Cruise. VW will have to attract scarce AV talent from Silicon Valley and China. And given the diverse markets VW plays in, investing in regional centers to better understand local conditions to train its algorithms maybe able to boost its global AV ambitions." – Aman Madhok
(Source: Green Car Congress)
"Volkswagen (VW) has established its own autonomous vehicle (AV) subsidiary, VWAT GmbH. In July 2019, VW invested $2.6B in Agro AI. VW plans to take the learnings from Agro AI and Audi’s Autonomous Intelligent Driving into VWAT, to speed up its AV development to compete with the perceived front runners like GM Cruise, Google Waymo and Tesla. Combining the strengths of different companies into one, coupled with adequate funding, will bolster VW’s efforts to accelerate its AV development strategy. The formation of VWAT also indicates VW’s interest to develop key AV technologies and implement them across the portfolio. However, VW is behind rivals, Waymo and Cruise. VW will have to attract scarce AV talent from Silicon Valley and China. And given the diverse markets VW plays in, investing in regional centers to better understand local conditions to train its algorithms maybe able to boost its global AV ambitions." – Aman Madhok