Ride-hailing services and autonomous vehicles are the future of the automotive industry. While it may be several years before we see any automotive market in the world completely served by autonomous vehicles, this technology is being developed, enhanced, and implemented to give us vehicles that can help us avoid an accident, which allows there to be fewer fatalities on the road. Because of this future, the Volkswagen Group has recently announced a partnership that will bring more innovation to the vehicles they built. This partnership is with Aurora Innovations to add the autonomous technology being developed to the VW models in the future.
Aurora Innovations is based in Palo Alto, CA and is a technology firm that primarily operates in the field of autonomous vehicles to work with automakers around the world. This new strategic collaboration brings the priority of safety in self-driving cars to help make these cars a reality sooner rather than later. With the help of Aurora, the team at VW will experience the innovation and autonomy desired much sooner than if they were to look for the answers on their own and worked to develop the technology without assistance.
What Does This Autonomous Collaboration Mean?
Not only does it mean that if you drive a VW model that’s autonomous in the future it will have Aurora technology installed, it means a step forward toward the goal of the TOGETHER – Strategy 2025 manifesto that VW Group published recently. While this announcement of a partnership is new information, the two teams have been working together for the past six months to bring sensors, software, and more integration into the various VW platforms that underpin the vehicles they offer for the drive. The goal is broader than just having vehicles we can drive that may be able to drive themselves for the VW Group.
In addition to the goal of bringing autonomy to the automotive market for us to enjoy when we’re ready to drive, the VW Group can see the addition of the Aurora Innovations technology that will help improve the mobility of many people who aren’t currently mobile. Imagine children, elderly, and visually impaired people that can hail a ride in a vehicle that will show up and take them where they need to go. This new system could allow more freedom for those that are often without the ability to drive themselves where they need to go.
The mobility service could all the use of a key or an app to hail a ride and the GPS system would know where to make the pickup wherever the device is that hailed the ride. Then you can tell the vehicle where you want to go and it will take you to the destination. This is a system that could allow kids to make it to events when parents are still working, even when they aren’t old enough to drive, or allow a person who isn’t able to drive any longer, the ability to get around much easier. This new partnership certainly has a long-term vision attached to it that could make things better around the world.
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