Volkswagen has announced a new partnership with Nvidia at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) currently under way in Las Vegas. The joint venture is a bid by VW to bring sophisticated forms of autonomous technology to its vehicles, specifically the I.D. Buzz concept.
According to vehicle manufacturer, the production version of the I.D. Buzz concept will sport the Intelligent Co-Pilot technology. The vehicle’s sensors would allow it to recognize the owner and automatically unlock the doors. It would also be able to do things such as gaze tracking to establish where a driver is looking. The company also promises that deep-learning capability would let future vehicles to learn how to assess situations and analyze the behavior of other drivers. The system can also gain new features over time via software updates.
Volkswagen doesn’t have a real-world demonstration yet as the partnership is still in its infancy.
“In just a few years, every new vehicle should have AI assistants for voice, gesture and facial recognition as well as augmented reality,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said when announcing the partnership. “Working with Volkswagen, we are creating a new generation of cars that are safer, more enjoyable to ride in than anything that has come before, and accessible to everyone.”
The Buzz is a retro-styled revival of the classic Type 2 combi bus. Riding on Volkswagen’s EV-focused MEB platform, the futuristic minivan will debut in 2022. The concept model uses an electric motor at each axle for a total output of 275kW. The battery provides an estimated range of 434km. A 200kW rear-wheel-drive version is also possibly in the pipeline.