FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Volkswagen is considering offering autonomous driving on a pay-per-use basis, one of the brand’s board members said in a newspaper interview.
“Regarding autonomous driving we can imagine to offer it on an hourly basis,” Klaus Zellmer, in charge of sales, marketing and after-sales at the Volkswagen brand, told Die Welt.
“We assume a price of around seven euros per hour. So if you do not want to drive yourself for three hours you can pay 21 euros to get it done,” Zellmer said, adding that way autonomous driving would become available for everyone.
Carmakers are putting their hopes on software-related services for cars in a bid to generate new revenue streams, arguing that vehicles will become interconnected devices, much like smartphones.
The Volkswagen brand plans to offer digital services to drivers of its ID electric cars from the second quarter of 2022, Thomas Ulbrich, board member in charge of development at the Volkswagen brand, was quoted as saying.
“We are planning offers such as mileage or performance enhancements for electric vehicles, which can be booked. We are already coordinating this with regulators.”
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
