Volkswagen and NVIDIA join forces to develop the Artificial Intelligence of the future I.D. Buzz

As we have already mentioned, the electric future of Volkswagen involves bringing to production the family of vehicles called I.D., which we have seen in prototype form. According to statements from the German manufacturer, these models are expected to reach various markets starting in 2020, with autonomous driving gradually being incorporated into them.

The I.D. family consists, at least for now, of the I.D. prototypes, I.D. Crozz and the I.D. Buzz minivan. These models share a common element: the use of the new MEB platform, an architecture designed specifically for electric mobility, as well as technology and systems prepared for the levels of autonomous driving. It is worth noting that these electronic systems of the MEB architecture will be installed gradually in conventional propulsion systems, those based on the current MQB platform of Volkswagen.

Of these three prototypes of the I.D. family, the most representative model is the I.D. Buzz, not only for its refined futuristic design of the iconic Bully from Volkswagen, the van that many young people in the 60s dreamed of, but also because in 2022 it will become the sixth electric model of Volkswagen. Before it, the fully electric Golf will arrive in 2019, to be followed by the I.D. Crozz.

But although the I.D. Buzz will not be the first of the family to reach the roads, it was the star of the first day of CES 2018 thanks to Herbert Diess, chairman of Volkswagen, and Jensen Huang, founder of NVIDIA. Both held a conversation at the opening day of CES 2018 about how Artificial Intelligence is transforming the automotive industry, a technology that will precisely have a lot to say in the future I.D. Buzz.

Globally, we are inevitably heading toward a world in which new vehicles will gradually incorporate Artificial Intelligence, mainly in systems such as facial recognition, gesture and voice recognition, as well as in augmented reality systems, thus making it possible to create vehicles that are much safer and more pleasant to drive for anyone. This is why Volkswagen and NVIDIA have joined forces to develop this type of technology and systems.

With regard to the future Volkswagen I.D. Buzz, Artificial Intelligence will make it possible to create systems such as the “Intelligent Co-Pilot”, which includes assistance and comfort systems that will use processed data previously collected by sensors located both inside and outside the vehicle. In addition, using the NVIDIA DRIVE IX Intelligent Experience platform, we will be able to perform numerous functions, such as unlocking the car from the outside through facial recognition, alerting the driver to the presence of cyclists, gesture recognition for user controls, natural language understanding to avoid errors, and gaze tracking for distraction alerts.

In addition, the advantage of all these systems is that, through software updates, they can be updated and improved during the life of the vehicle, also acquiring new capabilities as progress is made in autonomous driving. Finally, these systems will have the capacity for “deep learning”, enabling the car to learn to assess situations and the behavior of third parties, in order to make the right decision in record time.