We are thrilled to announce our first strategic automotive partnership with the Volkswagen Group. Together we will bring self-driving technology to market quickly and safely around the world, with the service and quality expected of two leaders in manufacturing and technology.
For over 80 years, the Volkswagen Group has built world-class capability in vehicle design and manufacturing. Today, the Group produces over 10 million vehicles each year across the world, from industry-leading brands Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi, SEAT, ŠKODA, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Scania, and MAN.
Aurora and Volkswagen Group share a common vision for and dedication to self-driving technology and offer complementary expertise to bring the technology to market. With Chief Digital Officer Johann Jungwirth at the helm, the Volkswagen Group has stepped up the pace in self-driving technology.
As JJ explains it:
Our vision is "Mobility for all, at the push of a button." This means that we want to offer mobility for all people around the world, regardless of income, and for all humans in the sense of inclusion and accessibility. It’s important that children, the elderly, and those with physical limitations have access—we really mean mobility for all. And this mobility needs to be easy—"at the push of a button" stands for simplicity and ease of use. People can use our mobility app or digital virtual assistant to hail a self-driving electric vehicle or use our Volkswagen OneButton which has GPS and cellular connectivity, in a small and beautifully convenient key fob.
Working with Aurora—the original experts and world leaders in self-driving systems—will give us a giant leap forward in our mission to become the world’s leading provider of sustainable mobility through self-driving vehicles. Our aim is to create new Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) solutions with the highest safety standards, best-in-class user experience, and digital intelligence. For me, this is the reinvention of mobility and the automobile.
Since mid-2017, experts from the Aurora team have worked closely with specialists from the Volkswagen Group in Germany and the Silicon Valley Campus to integrate Aurora’s self-driving system with Volkswagen’s vehicle platforms. This work will continue in the coming months as we develop and launch MaaS pilots on Volkswagen Group vehicles. As the self-driving system matures, we will integrate this system across Volkswagen Group brands and into different product categories including fully self-driving pods, shuttles or delivery vans, and self-driving trucks without a cabin. The addition of self-driving technology will allow the Volkswagen Group new freedom in creating a superior customer experience, with a focus on safety, convenience, and usability.
The Aurora team is excited to partner with Volkswagen Group. Together, we look forward to realizing the benefits of self-driving at scale and around the globe.
Chris, JJ and Sterling.
