With MAN and Scania, VW is now Europe's biggest truck builder

Volkswagen announced today that they have built up a 55.9% share of German truck and heavy diesel engine manufacturer MAN. Volkswagen will have influence on the 253-year-old MAN's supervisory board, making it easier to create a functional partnership with another VW truck builder, Scania.
This will give Volkswagen more ability to compete with the heavy truck manufacturing divisions of Daimler and Volvo.

MAN and Scania's combined output of 172,000 truck units weighing more than six tonnes was just slightly higher than Volvo's output, but still 37% lower than Daimler's.

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Volkswagen Passat With Auto Pilot

Auto Pilot system combines other driver-assistance function and is able to drive the car alone at speeds of up to 130 km/h (81 mph).

Volkswagen is using its research subsidies wisely.

The German automaker is working on a system called Temporary Auto Pilot (TAP) which can semi-automatically drive a car on its own under limited conditions.

TAP works by combining other functions like ACC adaptive cruise control and Lane Assist (which helps keep the car within a lane) into an integrated system. Always monitored by the driver, and always leaving her/him the ability to override the system when needed, TAP can drive a car 'semi-automatically' at speeds of up to 130 km/h (81 mph) on a highway.

The system was developed by VW as part of the EU funded R&D project HAVEit ("Highly Automated Vehicles for Intelligent Transport") where the TAP system was presented as a complete project.

Said Volkswagen's Executive Director for Research, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Leohold:

"[This is] an important milestone on the path towards fully automatic and accident-free driving."

Sounds great. Hey, how about an onboard toilet?

Source: VW

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