In short: Volkswagen’s autonomous mobility subsidiary MOIA America and Uber have begun road tests with about 10 autonomous IDs in Los Angeles. Buzz cars, the inaugural phase of the deployment, are scheduled to offer commercial trips with human security operators by the end of 2026 and a fully driverless service in 2027. Los Angeles is the first US city in what the two companies describe as a multi-city service in the next decade.
A year after Volkswagen and Uber announced their partnership, the first ID. Buzz AD cars are physically on the streets of Los Angeles. MOIA America, the U.S. name for Volkswagen’s autonomous driving division, said it will deploy more than 100 vehicles in the city for real-world testing before commercial service rolls out. The test fleet will currently carry a human safety operator in each vehicle, a standard prerequisite as the company works through California’s layered regulatory requirements before charging passengers for rides.
What is the tool really?
Identity card. Buzz is a different proposition than the consumer-focused version of AD ID. The buzz that Volkswagen sells in showrooms. The autonomous variant is equipped with a set of 27 sensors combining 13 cameras, nine LiDAR units and five radars, and all sensor data is transmitted to a Mobileye source computer running on the Mobileye Drive platform. The partnership, which replaces a previous deal with Argo AI after Volkswagen pulled its investment in 2022, gives Mobileye responsibility for the software, hardware components and digital mapping that make up the car’s decision-making layer.
The production car seats up to six passengers and is equipped with motorized sliding doors, making it more practical than the standard saloon for group rides that MOIA has built since its inception. The car was first shown in series production configuration in 2025 and was manufactured by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles at the Hanover plant.
The path to commercial service
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Before MOIA America can collect fares from passengers in California, it must clear two separate regulatory hurdles: a commercial use permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles and a ride permit from the California Public Utilities Commission. It’s not a formality. The current test phase, which involves safety operators in each vehicle, is partly a technical inspection exercise and partly a demonstration of safe operation, which regulators will check before issuing wider approvals.
The company’s published schedule is ambitious. After the current scale test with about 10 vehicles, expansion to more than 100 vehicles with safety operators will take place by the time commercial service opens in late 2026. A fully driverless service with no people in the car is expected by 2027. MOIA America has announced that it intends to deliver more than 500 vehicles to more than 50 vehicles. Deploying more than 1,000 vehicles in additional US cities by 2027 and beyond.
Paul DeLong, president of commercialization for MOIA America, described the geographic choice as thoughtful: “Given its long history of shaping car culture and embracing new mobility technologies, Los Angeles is a natural market to launch MOIA’s autonomous vehicles for the driving experience.” He added that the partnership with Uber has been central to the strategy from the beginning: “Together with Uber, we are bringing MOIA’s autonomous vehicles and expertise to a platform already used and trusted by millions of drivers.”
Sasha Meyer, chief commercial officer of Volkswagen Autonomous Mobility, said the announcement in Los Angeles reflects “the strong momentum behind our strategy to bring autonomous mobility to real-world operation.” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi called the development “an important milestone in the development of autonomous mobility” and said it reflected “both Volkswagen and Uber’s shared dedication to building the future of transportation.”
Why LA, why now
Los Angeles is not a blank slate for autonomous car services. Waymo has been operating fully self-driving rides in the city since 2024, expanding its licensed territory to include most of Southern California, making more than 250,000 paid trips per week across all U.S. markets. Entering a city where the incumbent already operates at meaningful scale sets a clear performance benchmark for MOIA and Uber to meet before commercial launch. It also means that riders in the city will have a direct comparison from day one.
MOIA has operational experience that other new entrants to US cities do not. The company has been operating a ride-pooling service in Hamburg since 2019 and has carried more than ten million passengers to date, providing a wealth of real-world operational data that informs both its vehicle design and service model. The autonomous program in Hamburg is running concurrently as part of the federally-backed ALIKE project, meaning it’s the first time Los Angeles cars are not ID. The Buzz AD platform operated in a commercial context with the public.
Uber as a platform, not a technology
The MOIA partnership is one example of Uber’s broader strategy after it pulled back from developing its self-driving technology after selling its Advanced Technologies Group to Aurora in 2020. Uber has structured itself as a distribution layer for autonomous vehicles rather than a developer of the underlying technologypartnering with companies that can provide safe, commercially viable vehicles in certain markets.
The list of these partners has grown significantly. Uber has relaunched its Moving robotaxi service in Las Vegas Following Motional’s $550 million Series B funding round in August 2025, Motional is aiming for a fully driverless commercial service by the end of 2026. Uber, Wayve and Nissan have announced plans to test a robot taxi service in Tokyo Nissan LEAF electric vehicles using Wayve’s AI Driver system are slated for late 2026, pending regulatory approval. MOIA America in Los Angeles adds a third geography and a third technology partner to this expanding network.
The business logic is consistent across each arrangement: Uber contributes to demand, brand recognition, and logistics infrastructure for shipping and fleet management; autonomous car partner contributes technology and vehicles. Uber’s broader infrastructure investment, including its AI infrastructure partnership with AWSprovides a cloud and computing layer that integrates dispatch, routing and vehicle management in an increasingly complex multi-partner, multi-city network. Identity card. The buzz cars coming to Los Angeles are the latest addition to a platform that Uber is assembling piecemeal, city-by-city, rather than building from a single vertically integrated stack.
