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Self-Driving Volkswagen Vans to Commute During 2022 FIFA World Cup

R Varsh
  • FIFA Soccer World Cup 2022 is going to witness self-driving electric vans introduced by Volkswagen.
  • According to VW, Qatar will be the maiden country for featuring the electric vans since it is going to host FIFA World Cup 2020.
  • The vehicles will operate at Level 4 on the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) autonomy scale.

Volkswagen has planned to put a convoy of self-driving vans on Doha streets in Qatar during the FIFA world cup championship which is scheduled from 21 November to 18 December 2022. Similar to Toyota introducing self-driving technology vehicles in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Qatar World soccer championship will help VW achieve stardom as fans from all over the world have set their eyes to this big event.

According to Tech Crunch, Volkswagen and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) have collaborated to build the required infrastructure that will integrate self-driving vehicles into Doha’s public transport network. It is reported that 4 brands of Volkswagen Group have joined together for the perfect working of the system.

At the initial stage, the VW commercial vehicles are going to design a total of 35 electric minivans based on Volkswagen’s ID Buzz Concept (2017). The minivans are supposed to commute up to 4 passengers on the routes passing through the Westbay area of Doha. Additionally, Scania is working to develop ten high-tech buses for the transportation of a large number of groups of people. The subsidiaries of Volkswagen, MOIA and AID (Autonomous Intelligent Driving) are going to provide mobility service expertise and self-driving technology for an operational transport system.

The self-driving technology vans will operate on Level 4 on the SAE autonomy scale. This means the vehicle will perform driving operations all by itself even in any adverse situation. SAE stands for Society of Automotive Engineers that defines 6 levels of driving automation (adopted by the U.S. Department of Transportation) that range from 0 (fully manual) to 5 (fully autonomous). The names of 6 automation levels starting from 0 are no driving automation, driver assistance (1), Partial driving automation (2), Conditional driving automation (3), High driving automation (4), and Full driving automation (5).

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Talking about the events, Mansoor Al Mahmoud, chief executive of QIA, said that the technologies are AI-based and emission-free transportation. This will ensure advanced urban mobility through reduced congestion and enhanced energy efficiency. He further said that developing such smart transport solutions will positively transform the future of urban mobility not only at home but all around the world. Herbert Diess, CEO of VW Group said that will experience real-world learnings and this project will prove as a stepping stone for future generations.

VW officially stated that the closed tests of vehicles will commence next year while trials will begin in 2021. The autonomous vehicles are going to work on semi-fixed routes i.e. they will carry passengers from the World cup stadiums to local hotels or hot spots. Geo-fencing will be implemented at work to discourage passengers from flagging any autonomous vehicle and taking it for a longer trip.


R Varsh

He is a librarian at Monash University. Besides handling several responsibilities of the library job, he has a great passion for writing blogs. His write-up is well-recognized by his readers.

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