VW on track to stay best seller
Group looks set to retain position as world’s top carmaker despite ‘dieselgate’ emissions scandal
VOLKSWAGEN Group is expected to retain its position as the world’s largest car-maker for last year, increasing its lead over Toyota. Internal sales estimates from VW Group – which includes the Audi, Seat and Porsche marques – predict global sales of 10.7 million vehicles for last year, according to reports in the German media.
This would put it comfortably ahead of its Japanese rival’s worldwide sales forecast of 10.35 million vehicles last year. These include the company’s Daihatsu, Lexus and Hino marques.
Despite the controversy around “dieselgate” when VW admitted cheating pollution control tests – which cost it tens of billions of euros in fines and compensation – the company seems to have shrugged off reputational damage from the scandal.
In 2016, VW Group’s global sales were 10.3 million, up 3.8% on the previous year, when they took a hit from the emissions scandal, against Toyota’s 10.2 million for the same period.
The in-house estimates for VW seen by Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper mean the Wolfsburg-based car manufacturer is destined to report revenue of ß220-billion (R3.2-trillion) for last year, a new record, and ß3-billion (R44.6-billion) up on 2016.
Announcing third-quarter results in October, VW said it was still facing fresh costs relating to dieselgate, warning that provisions relating to buying back and refitting 2.0-litre diesel cars in the US had been increased as the programme was proving more comprehensive and technically more challenging than expected.
Board member for finance Frank Witter noted that at that point in the company’s financial year it had taken provisions of ß14.5-billion (R215.5-billion) relating to dieselgate.
Meanwhile, Nvidia will partner with Uber Technologies and Volkswagen, as the graphics chipmaker’s artificial intelligence platforms make gains in the autonomous vehicle industry.
The company, which already has partnerships in the industry with companies like carmaker Tesla and China’s Baidu, makes computer graphics chips and has been expanding into technology for self-driving cars.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said at the CES technology conference in Las Vegas that Uber’s self-driving car fleet was using Nvidia technology to help its autonomous cars perceive the world and make instant decisions.
Uber has been using Nvidia’s GPU computing technology since its first test fleet of Volvo SC90 SUVS was deployed in 2016 in Pittsburgh and Phoenix. Uber’s autonomous driving programme has been shaken this year by a lawsuit filed in San Francisco by rival Waymo alleging trade secret theft.
Nvidia said development of the Uber self-driving programme had, nevertheless, gained steam with 1.6 million autonomous kilometres being driven in just the past 100 days.
With Volkswagen, Nvidia said it was infusing its artificial intelligence technology into VW’s future lineup, using their new Drive IX platform.
The technology would enable so-called “intelligent co-pilot” capabilities based on processing sensor data.
So far, 320 companies involved in self-driving cars – software developers, automakers and their suppliers, and sensor and mapping companies – were using Nvidia Drive, formerly branded as the Drive PX2, the company said. – The Telegraph, Reuters