Volkswagen mentioned Thursday that it’ll start testing self-driving electrical autos in Austin, Texas, later this month.

The German auto big mentioned it should deploy about 10 of its ID Buzz electrical vans outfitted with autonomous driving methods developed with Mobileye by the top of 2023. The primary two of these vans are already within the U.S. and can start testing earlier than the top of July, it mentioned.

The self-driving ID Buzz vans are outfitted with lidar, radar and digicam methods. The autos are “geofenced,” that means they’ll function solely in particular areas of the town which were fastidiously mapped, Volkswagen mentioned.

For now, all of its self-driving autos can have human security drivers on board whereas testing.

“We chosen Austin as the primary U.S. hub, as the town has a observe report for embracing innovation and affords a conducive local weather for the testing of autonomous autos,” mentioned Katrin Lohmann, the chief main Volkswagen’s self-driving efforts within the U.S.

Lohmann mentioned that the corporate expects to increase its Austin fleet and add testing operations in at the least 4 extra U.S. cities over the following three years.

The transfer is the newest in a collection of steps the auto big has taken to revamp its self-driving technique in current months, together with a deeper partnership with Mobileye and new investments in MOIA, its Europe-based ride-sharing service.

Whereas the corporate has been working towards a robotaxi service in Europe, it is not planning a ride-sharing service of its personal within the U.S. as of now. As an alternative, it plans to supply autonomous ID Buzz vans and fleet administration capabilities to different companies providing ride-sharing or supply companies.

Together with Ford Motor, Volkswagen was an investor within the now-defunct Pittsburgh-based self-driving startup Argo AI. For some time, Argo was thought-about a pacesetter within the race to develop absolutely autonomous autos – however Ford and Volkswagen determined to wind down the corporate in October of 2022, citing spiraling prices and variations round technique.

Ford in March launched a brand new subsidiary, known as Latitude AI, to increase on its BlueCruise hands-free freeway driving system. That unit consists of about 550 staff who beforehand labored for Argo AI.

Volkswagen has additionally employed a few of Argo AI’s former staff for its U.S. self-driving effort, it mentioned.