Volkswagens that can drive themselves arriving soon

It was once the party trick of movie star Herbie the Volkswagen Beetle, but the German giant has revealed that customers will be able to buy cars that can drive and park themselves for real within the next five years.

Called “automated driving” and “automated parking”, the two systems will allow drivers to de-stress behind the wheel while also reducing the number of accidents, improving fuel consumption and lowering CO2 emissions. 

Engineers at Volkswagen’s Electronic Research Laboratory (ERL), based in the heart of Silicon Valley in Northern California, are currently testing a raft of technology that will soon appear in Volkswagen Group models right across the range – from a base model Golf right up to the next-generation Audi A8 likely to appear in 2016. 

The ERL already has an impressive history when it comes to autonomous technology – its engineers, working with Stanford University, pioneered the famous VW Touareg DARPA Grand Challenge car (below) and a similar VW Passat Estate – both were fully autonomous. More recently the laboratory was the brain behind the Audi RS7 that lapped the Hockenheim race track fully autonomously with no driver.

The VW Group of America’s head of driver assistance systems, Jorg Schlinkheider, told Auto Express: “Automated driving helps us to achieve our goals of reducing safety, improving comfort levels and reducing stress levels, and helping the environment (keeping cars driving more smoothly will improve fuel economy and reduce CO2 emissions).

“In America, 93 per cent of all accidents are due to human error. If we can take some of the driving away from the driver, the number of accidents will reduce.”

Volkswagen currently has licenses in Nevada, Florida and California to pilot fully-autonomous Audis on public roads. Thousands of miles are being clocked up to push the technology to its limits and make it fit for mass application for drivers.

Headlining the technology is automated driving which takes control away from the driver in traffic jams and sees the car drive by itself – including steering, braking, accelerating and decelerating – up to speeds of 40mph, and partly automated parking which lets the driver get out of their car and control the car’s parking manoeuvre via their smartphone or car key.

The technology will make its way onto full production cars, which customers will be able to purchase from their local showrooms within the next five years. Currently, only the USA is allowing the technology to be used on its roads, while in Europe the Vienna Convention is strangling the application of the technology.

But Schlinkheider said that VW is speaking with the EU to change the laws because it's "the future of driving."

Schlinkheider did admit, however, that customers are still skeptical of the clever tech. He quoted 52 per cent of the public fear automomous technology in cars, while 48 per cent are uncertain about its reliability.

He added: “58 per cent also said autonomous driving would remove driving fun. This is especially true in our high-performance Audi and Porsche models – but it is no fun driving a Porsche in a traffic jam! This is the type of thing our customers need to learn about the benefits… And then they will buy the technology.”