Volkswagen will unveil the ID.Aura T6 prototype in April 2026 in Beijing, China.
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German car giant Volkswagen has announced that it will incorporate AI voice commands into its cars for the Chinese market.
Starting in the second half of this year, all vehicles based on Volkswagen’s China Automotive System will be equipped with an AI agent, allowing humans to control car functions with voice commands, the company announced on Tuesday.
“A car should be like a companion,” Volkswagen China CTO Thomas Ulbrich told CNBC’s Eunice Yun.
He said the company’s in-vehicle AI agents will leverage technology from Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu and others to create tools with “personality” that can anticipate drivers’ needs.
The AI uses large language models trained locally and runs entirely on the car, not in the cloud.
Volkswagen unveiled four cars in Beijing on Tuesday, including the ID. The company claims to have co-developed the UNYX 09 with EV maker Xpeng over a two-year period.
The move is part of the company’s strategy to regain lost market share as China rapidly transitions from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles.
Volkswagen has invested heavily in China in recent years, with stakes in Xpeng and automotive semiconductor maker Horizon Robotics.
Because of these partnerships, German automakers are no longer using Nvidia chips in their Chinese cars. Instead, Volkswagen plans to use Xpeng’s Turing chip in an electric SUV that will begin deliveries by the end of June, although an advanced automotive chip project with Horizon Robotics is still in development.
Volkswagen announced Tuesday that it will use agent AI to power its integrated driver assistance and cockpit control systems starting next year.
The German automaker announced in November that its research center in Hefei will independently develop and approve technology for Chinese cars, speeding time to market.
Over the past two years, German auto industry companies in China have significantly stepped up their research and development activities in the country, with the aim of serving both the domestic and global markets, according to a report released Tuesday by the German Chamber of Commerce in China.
Almost 80% of auto companies surveyed by the chamber said that localizing R&D in China has lowered costs compared to Germany over the past two years, and about 43% of respondents said the rate of innovation has increased by more than 40%, the report said.
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