The goal is to get self-driving ID Buzzes ready for commercial delivery service in 2025. The test program hopes to have the vehicles out of the test facility and onto public roads later this year.
Unlike a particularly bullish-on-self-driving-cars automaker and its driver assistance system that eschews lidar (it rhymes with “besla”), Argo AI’s sensor suite embraces the more comprehensive scanning tech. The company’s new “Argo Lidar” can resolve an object from 437 yards away and can sense just a single photon being reflected from a low-reflectivity object. In addition to lidar, the system includes radar and cameras.
While it’s early days yet, the system already has a user signed up: VW’s subsidiary MOIA, which is a ride-sharing company in Germany. By 2025, if everything goes to plan, the company will utilize the ID Buzz as an autonomous ride pooling vehicle.