Photo: Volkswagen
Earlier in April 2019, three carmakers from North America - Ford, GM and Toyota - joined hands in creating a research group focused on the safety of autonomous cars and systems. The group is called Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium (AVSC) and was joined this week by the American branch of Volkswagen.
The main goal of AVSC is to create the necessary framework around which carmakers can develop safe technologies for self-driving cars, which in turn should become the basis for industry standards in the future.
“It’s important that the industry work together in the development of standards and best practices for automated driving,” said in a statement Wolfgang Demmelbauer-Ebner, chief engineering officer for Volkswagen’s North American Region.
“That process begins with efficient testing criteria and we’re excited to begin work with the AVSC to ensure those are defined and adopted across the board.”
Of the companies now involved in this group (more have adhered since), Volkswagen is just beginning its research into autonomous cars. So far, the carmaker has not presented any breakthrough technologies in this field, but plans to do so in the near future.
The Germans invested in an autonomous vehicle platform company called Argo AI in July, and together with Ford plans to finance the Autonomous Intelligent Driving group.
To date, the AVSC comprises Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Lyft, Toyota and Uber.
Of them, Uber is perhaps the most advanced in researching autonomous tech. Ford plans to have a fully autonomous car on the road by 2021, Toyota possibly even faster, while GM has dedicated an entire division to the research in this field.
Their combined work, if successful, is likely to help better understand the self-driving phenomenon, but most importantly could lead to proper rules and regulations being developed for what is now certain to become a reality of the not-so-distant future.
“It’s important that the industry work together in the development of standards and best practices for automated driving,” said in a statement Wolfgang Demmelbauer-Ebner, chief engineering officer for Volkswagen’s North American Region.
“That process begins with efficient testing criteria and we’re excited to begin work with the AVSC to ensure those are defined and adopted across the board.”
Of the companies now involved in this group (more have adhered since), Volkswagen is just beginning its research into autonomous cars. So far, the carmaker has not presented any breakthrough technologies in this field, but plans to do so in the near future.
The Germans invested in an autonomous vehicle platform company called Argo AI in July, and together with Ford plans to finance the Autonomous Intelligent Driving group.
To date, the AVSC comprises Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Lyft, Toyota and Uber.
Of them, Uber is perhaps the most advanced in researching autonomous tech. Ford plans to have a fully autonomous car on the road by 2021, Toyota possibly even faster, while GM has dedicated an entire division to the research in this field.
Their combined work, if successful, is likely to help better understand the self-driving phenomenon, but most importantly could lead to proper rules and regulations being developed for what is now certain to become a reality of the not-so-distant future.
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