The ID. Buzz AD, the first fully autonomous production vehicle from Volkswagen (VW), is to be deployed in Europe and the US from 2026.

Self-driving vehicles have rarely been out the headlines in recent weeks.

In just the past week alone, Alphabet’s Waymo revealed it is to expand into New York City, Amazon’s Zoox has opened a robotaxi manufacturing plant and Tesla launched its robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, with 11 vehicles.

VW has now also entered the robotaxi fray, but with a slightly different offering. 

Its MOIA brand, a tech subsidiary of the VW Group, has unveiled the ID. Buzz AD – an autonomous production-ready version of its all-electric ID. Buzz microbus.

The difference is that while MOIA supplies the “comprehensive end-to-end solution” – the electric vehicle, self-driving tech, digital customer booking platform and operator training – the robotaxis themselves will be managed by public and private service providers.

MOIA says that this approach will enable providers to launch autonomous services “quickly, safely and at scale”. 

Oliver Blume, CEO of the VW Group, said: “Our driverless ID. Buzz shuttles are part of a fully connected 360° package made up of leading technology, an attractive vehicle fleet, intelligent fleet management and a customer-centric booking system – all from a single source and quickly scalable to fleet size on the road.” 

MOIA will initially launch in Hamburg at the start of 2026, followed by other areas of Europe and the US.

In April, MOIA announced the launch of a long-term strategic partnership with Uber that will see its its autonomous ID. Buzz AD vehicles deployed on the Uber platform in multiple US states over the next decade. It will start with Los Angeles in 2026. 

Christian Senger, CEO of VW Autonomous Mobility, said: ”VW is not just a car manufacturer – we are shaping the future of mobility, and our collaboration with Uber accelerates that vision.”

Meanwhile, yesterday Tesla launched its first fleet of 11 Tesla self-driving robotaxis in Austin, Texas. The event is the first time Tesla vehicles have carried paying riders without human safety drivers.

This marks a significant milestone that Tesla’s owner Elon Musk has long been talking about and striving for.

On his social media platform X he said: “Super congratulations to the @Tesla_AI software & chip design teams on a successful @Robotaxi launch!! Culmination of a decade of hard work. Both the AI chip and software teams were built from scratch within Tesla.”

He also reposted videos of Austin residents who were the first to hail the service:

As Musk told US news service CNBC in May, the Tesla robotaxi roll-out will start slow with “probably 10 for a week, then increase it to 20, 30, 40”.

But if Tesla succeeds with the small deployment, it still faces major challenges in delivering on Musk’s promises to scale up quickly in Austin and other cities.

Philip Koopman, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-engineering professor, told Reuters that it could “take years or decades for Tesla and self-driving rivals, such as Alphabet’s Waymo, to fully develop a robotaxi industry”.

Earlier in June, transport secretary Heidi Alexander confirmed that the government will fast-track driverless car pilots and introduce self-driving commercial pilots on UK roads in spring 2026.