Volkswagen has set its sights on becoming the “European champion” in self-driving vehicles as carmakers fight to survive a technology race that has been dominated by US rivals Waymo and Tesla.
The German carmaker plans to launch driverless taxis later this year in Los Angeles with Uber in what is set to become one of the most ambitious efforts by European legacy carmakers to find a new source of revenue in autonomous driving.
The carmaker’s robotaxi unit, MOIA, has 100 test vehicles already on the road in Germany, Norway and the US, of which 30 are in Hamburg. MOIA is in talks with cities in Europe where its service will be rolled out next year after its LA launch, and is aiming to have 100,000 vehicles on the road by 2033.