VW expects commercial vehicles will be the first to gain self-driving capabilities. A production ID Buzz Cargo would be a good place to start. On Wednesday at CES, Volkswagen detailed an important new step in the company's march towards self-driving cars: the establishment not just of a new nerve center in Silicon Valley to research and develop the technology, but also the creation of Volkswagen Autonomy, Inc., a subsidiary division to support it. Based out of Belmont, California (about 25 miles south of San Francisco) at VW's preexisting Innovation and Engineering Center California, the new engineering center is expected to result in the hiring of 50 to 100 systems engineering and architecture experts this year. As the new operations grow, Volkswagen Autonomy, Inc. may eventually relocate to a nearby facility or expand the existing space, a company spokesperson tells Roadshow.

Volkswagen Group announced the creation of a subsidiary called Volkswagen Autonomy (VWAT) on Monday, with the German car giant saying it planned to "make autonomous driving market-ready." With offices in Munich and Wolfsburg, Volkswagen said that VWAT would aim to "bring a self-driving system… to market maturity." As well as its sites in Germany, Volkswagen said it also planned to establish companies in Silicon Valley and China in 2020 and 2021 respectively. Alexander Hitzinger, the Volkswagen Group's senior vice president for autonomous driving, will manage the new company. "We want to establish Volkswagen Autonomy as a global technology company where we bundle expertise from the automotive and technology industries, combining the agility and creativity of a high-performance culture with process orientation and scalability," Hitzinger said in a statement.