Cruising along a raised highway in eastern China, Marcus Hafkemeyer takes his hands off the wheel and smiles as the car indicates, brakes softly and changes lanes itself. “I’m very proud,” he says.
The German engineer is demonstrating Volkswagen’s rapid progress in offering assisted driving functionality to customers in China. Later, in an underground car park, the vehicle remembers its designated space and reverses effortlessly into the spot.
The technology, a forerunner to completely driverless cars, has taken the German company about 18 months to develop, test and now commercially deploy — all in China. It is the fruit of a 700-person research and development team comprised mostly of Chinese software engineers with masters or PhDs and more than five years’ experience.