Volkswagen revisiting autonomous car alliances, Waymo seen as a leader

Volkswagen Chief Financial Officer Frank Witter on Tuesday stated the automaker was open to deeper alliances with outside companies, generally in the area of autonomous driving, where Google’s Waymo is viewed to be an industry leader.

“It is yet to be seen whether every automaker develops their own system, or whether you bundle your efforts,” Witter stated in a conference call with journalists.

“We want to have access to a self-driving system and we are speaking with relevant players. It is very expensive to develop and others are already well advanced. Waymo is among them,” Witter stated, adding that no final decision had been considered.

Witter stated sharing the automaker’s electric vehicles platform MEB with Ford was theoretically possible, although the automaker is presently focused on presenting the electric vehicle technologies among its own brands.