Volkswagen announces ‘new DNA’, teases fully autonomous cars

Volkswagen has announced what it calls its ‘new DNA’, a proprietary software solution that will provide owners of VW-badged EVs with unique benefits and ultimately enable the creation of completely self-driving vehicles.

The battery cars already present in Europe will not just continue getting over-the-air updates, but will unlock new features as they become available. For one, the car known at the moment as the Project Trinity should come out in five years’ time and get an SAE Level 4 self-driving system when it is ready, or even Level 5 if the tests are successful.

No specific timeframes exist for either, though, because getting cars to run autonomously 100% of the time is a big challenge right now.

In the meantime, the German automaker plans to continue developing its car-sharing services. The WeShare program launched a few years ago will be getting more EVs soon, for example.

Finally, Volkswagen envisions a future without road accidents. Improving the Car2X system will enable smart cars to collect, send and receive real-time data about the road infrastructure. Whenever one of the cars encounters an issue, it will immediately share all relevant information with all other cars around it.