Volkswagen Group’s Audi brand will lose a key autonomous vehicle project under a new software strategy that aims to make the group’s proprietary software competitive and market-ready by the end of the decade.
Audi’s Artemis project, which aims to develop a Level 4 fully self-driving electric car by 2024, has shown little progress amid delays in creating advanced new software at VW Group’s Cariad unit.
VW Group CEO Oliver Blume is expected to scrap the Artemis project under a revamped software roadmap that he will present at a supervisory board meeting on Dec.15.
VW Group’s commercial vehicles unit will be the first of the group’s brands to launch autonomous vehicles, using Cariad-developed self-driving software. The unit is testing a fleet of ID Buzz self-driving electric minivans in Israel as part of its partnership with Mobileye, according to Automobilwoche sources.
Audi will still aim to launch self-driving cars in the second half of the decade but there is no fixed timeframe.
Under the new roadmap, the VW Group’s 1.1 and 1.2 software platforms will continue to be developed, with the 1.2 platform renamed “Software Premium” and made ready for Audi and Porsche to use by the end of the decade, German business daily Handelsblatt reported. The group’s mass-market brands will use the 1.1 software platform.