Volkswagen will test its driverless vehicles in Austin

Volkswagen (VW) announced Thursday plans to roll out test units of its driverless vehicles in Austin, Texas later this month.

Ten electric, driverless ID. Buzz vans will hit the streets of Austin this year, with the first two being let loose this month, the company said. The test is the first time VW has deployed their own autonomous cars in North America.

The company said it eventually plans to expand its Texas fleet and add three other cities yet to be named. The vans come equipped with lidar and radar and will have a human driver behind the wheel for safety.

Katrin Lohmann, VW’s president of autonomous vehicles, told the Austin American-Statesman that the company also plans to begin some form of delivery or ride-sharing services with the vehicles by 2026.

Vehicles will only be allowed to operate in a “geofenced” region of downtown that has been thoroughly mapped, the company said.

Ford, Google subsidiary Waymo and General Motors’s Cruise have also used Austin as an autonomous driving test bed.

VW’s newest foray into driverless cars follows the failure of Argo, a joint venture with Ford that went under last year. Argo also tested vehicles in Austin.

“We are stepping in the foot(steps) of Argo, but it’s a totally different tech setup and a little differentiated business approach,” VW board member Christian Senger told the Statesman.

The research comes as many drivers are worried about autonomous vehicles on the road. Nearly 70 percent of drivers said they were nervous about the technology in a AAA survey this spring.

Last year, Tesla recalled more than 50,000 of its vehicles over safety concerns with its self-driving technology.