(By Observer Net, Zhou Shengming; Editor: Gao Xin) According to a July 5 report by The Wall Street Journal, in June this year, MOIA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Volkswagen, officially launched its first mass-produced Robotaxi - ID.Buzz AD - in Hamburg, Germany. At the same time, the ID.Buzz AD also began urban road testing in Hamburg.

The Wall Street Journal also actually experienced the technology in Hamburg: "During the experience, the safety driver took over the vehicle twice. To avoid a truck blocking the way, the vehicle once mistakenly entered a bike lane and once mistakenly entered the oncoming traffic lane. The safety driver immediately corrected the vehicle and pressed the button next to the steering wheel to record the event for subsequent technical analysis."

"Such performance is indeed not an ideal driving decision," Christian Senger, head of Volkswagen Group's autonomous driving department, also evaluated such mistakes.

It is reported that the ID.Buzz AD is equipped with 27 sensors, including 13 cameras, 9 lidars, and 5 millimeter-wave radars, which have 360-degree environmental perception capabilities and can achieve SAE L4-level autonomous driving.

ID.Buzz AD sensor configuration MOIA

This model was jointly developed by Cariad, a software subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group for autonomous driving, and Mobileye, an Israeli autonomous driving technology company. Porsche and Audi brands within the Volkswagen Group will also participate in the supply chain collaboration.

Volkswagen stated that due to the ID.Buzz AD being manufactured on existing production lines, its cost will be significantly lower than Robotaxi products from companies like Waymo that use retrofitting.

Notably, MOIA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Volkswagen, also provides supporting services, offering a one-stop solution for the operation of Robotaxi in cities, including scheduling management, remote monitoring, and passenger interaction.

In terms of overseas deployment, Volkswagen announced a cooperation agreement with Uber in April 2025, planning to put "thousands of" ID.Buzz AD vehicles into service in Los Angeles starting in 2026 for autonomous mobility services. Initially, the vehicles will still be equipped with safety drivers, with the goal of achieving driverless operations by the end of 2026.

Christian Senger said that due to more complex regulations in Europe, fully autonomous services will be promoted in Europe after 2027.

Volkswagen has not disclosed specific production capacity and sales targets for the ID.Buzz AD, but Sascha Meyer, CEO of MOIA, said: "Our expansion pace will be determined by the speed at which the public trusts autonomous driving."

Additionally, Europe is accelerating the promotion of policy support. In March 2025, the EU introduced the "Automotive Industry Revitalization Plan," proposing the establishment of autonomous driving test areas and regulatory "sandboxes" to promote the commercialization of autonomous driving technology.

British startup Wayve also announced that it will conduct a Robotaxi pilot in London with Uber in 2026, and the plan has received clear policy support from the UK government.

The Wall Street Journal commented: "Once the leader of the global automotive industry, Europe is now striving to catch up with the United States and China in the race for autonomous driving."

According to public information, autonomous driving companies such as Baidu Apollo Go, Pony.ai, and Ruiqi Mobility have already launched Robotaxi services in first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, and are gradually starting their overseas expansion. In the United States, Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, Google's parent company, and Tesla have also launched Robotaxi services. Among them, Waymo has transported more than 250,000 passengers per week in the United States.

In contrast, Europe, lacking domestic tech giants and constrained by complicated regulations, has remained relatively silent in the field of autonomous driving. From the current situation, Europe has finally started to respond, trying to regain a foothold in this area.

This article is exclusive to Observer Net. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7524144934639911433/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author. Please express your opinion by clicking on the [Up/Down] buttons below.