BMW, Audi, VW: How Far German Automakers Really Are on Self-Driving

Waymo is suddenly worth more on paper than BMW and Volkswagen combined, despite selling exactly zero cars of its own. Here's where BMW, Audi, and Volkswagen actually stand on self-driving technology, and why their approaches look so different from Silicon Valley's.

Why the question of German progress on self-driving matters right now

Self-driving cars used to be a distant promise, something discussed mostly in California and China. Today it's a hard-nosed valuation story that directly touches German automakers too. Anyone shopping for or already driving an electric car runs into this debate constantly, through driver-assist features, marketing claims, and over-the-air updates, without it always being clear what a given system can actually do. The gap between "Level 2" and "Level 4" is enormous, both technically and legally, even though the two blur together in everyday driving. For a clearer breakdown of what separates them, see our guide to the SAE levels of autonomous driving.

That shift in the balance of power became strikingly visible with a recent funding round for Waymo, Google's robotaxi subsidiary. After raising roughly 16 billion dollars in fresh capital, the company is now valued at around 126 billion dollars, more than Volkswagen and BMW combined. What makes that remarkable is that Waymo doesn't sell a single vehicle of its own; it only sells rides in self-driving taxis. That gap between a traditional automaker and a data-driven mobility service sits at the center of a video by former Mercedes engineer and now industry analyst Philipp Raasch, which we break down below.

Source: Philipp Raasch – Waymo überholt Mercedes, BMW & VW. Ohne ein einziges Auto

What the video reveals about BMW, Audi, and VW

Raasch paints a nuanced picture of German strategy, showing that "self-driving" means something different at each of the three companies. What they share is a pattern: all three spent years moving step by step, perfecting Level 2 first and then cautiously testing Level 3, while competitors like Tesla, Waymo, and Chinese rivals treated self-driving from day one primarily as a data problem rather than a pure engineering challenge.

BMW: from early mover to retreat

BMW put a genuine Level 3 system on the road with "Personal Pilot L3" in the 7 Series, allowing highly automated driving up to about 37 mph, paired with an extended highway assistant for partially automated driving up to roughly 80 mph. Both systems, though, stayed niche features reserved for the priciest model in the lineup. According to the video, BMW scaled back or effectively paused its "eyes-off" program in 2026 because the technology was expensive to develop and certify while actual customer demand for the highly automated mode stayed low. Whether drivers can legally take their hands and eyes off the road at Level 3 is itself a legal question worth understanding, covered in our guide to robotaxi and self-driving laws in Germany and Europe.

One German automaker is already a step ahead on Level 3: Mercedes-Benz was the first company anywhere to receive official government approval for highly automated driving with its Drive Pilot system, initially capped at about 37 mph and now, under certain conditions, extended to roughly 59 mph. That suggests BMW's caution has less to do with regulatory approval itself and more with whether the business case holds up at mass-market scale. For a closer look at how Drive Pilot differs from BMW's shelved program, see our article on Mercedes Drive Pilot as the first Level 3 system on public roads.

Audi and Porsche: announced early, activated much later

Audi announced a Level 3 "traffic jam pilot" for the A8 back around 2017, a feature that was never actually switched on for customers, a case the industry still cites as a lesson in announcing technology too early. Recent reports suggest the group, alongside Porsche, is now picking up the pace again: a system called "Supervision" is planned for 2026, followed by one called "Chauffeur" in 2027, both built on technology from supplier Mobileye. That puts Audi in the same camp as several other global automakers that now rely on Mobileye as a core technology partner for driver assistance.

Volkswagen: perfect Level 2, then bring in partners

Volkswagen is taking a noticeably more cautious route, leaning primarily on mature Level 2 systems such as Travel Assist. Since 2025, though, the group has partnered with Mobileye and Valeo to close the gap on driver-assist technology. A second, far more ambitious project is also underway: starting in 2026, a self-driving ID.Buzz is planned for Volkswagen's own mobility service Moia, a kind of German answer to the robotaxi model, albeit at a much smaller scale for now.

Waymo, Tesla, and the market's verdict

While BMW, Audi, and VW focus on built-in assist features for private buyers, Waymo runs an entirely different business model: robotaxi fleets billed as a service. According to the video, Waymo was handling around 400,000 rides per week in early 2026; by summer 2026, Waymo's own figures put that number at roughly 500,000 rides per week. Here are the key figures cited in the video:

• Waymo's valuation after its latest funding round: roughly $126 billion
• Volkswagen's market capitalization: roughly $40 billion (as of 2026)
• BMW's market capitalization: roughly $40 billion (as of 2026)
• Waymo rides: about 400,000 per week in early 2026, climbing to roughly 500,000 by summer 2026, without a single vehicle sold
• BMW Personal Pilot L3: highly automated driving up to about 37 mph in the 7 Series

For a full explanation of how Waymo actually operates, see how Waymo robotaxis work. The same goes for its biggest US rival with a very different approach, covered in our guide to Tesla Full Self-Driving, which relies on cameras rather than lidar and runs in privately owned vehicles rather than a closed fleet.

Outlook: is Europe falling behind on self-driving?

Waymo's valuation jump is more than a footnote for investors; it's a signal to the entire industry. It shows that capital markets now weigh operational robotaxi mileage more heavily than decades of brand reputation, as Philipp Raasch puts it in the video. For German automakers, that creates pressure on two fronts at once: making their own Level 2 and Level 3 systems commercially viable while not falling further behind data-driven fleet models that are already scaling internationally.

As European counterweights to Waymo and Tesla, the video points to a handful of hopefuls: British startup Wayve, German startup MOTOR AI, and the Croatian robotaxi project Verne, backed by Rimac founder Mate Rimac. Unlike the legacy automakers' step-by-step programs, all three lean much more heavily on learning software from day one rather than incrementally expanded rule-based systems. Whether that's enough to close the gap will also depend on how quickly China, the US, and Europe evolve on regulation and technology, a comparison we explore further in China vs. USA vs. Europe: who's leading the self-driving race.

For EV drivers today, the practical takeaway stays modest for now: Level 3 features remain expensive, rare options limited to a handful of flagship models, while daily driving is still shaped by Level 2 systems like Travel Assist or comparable highway assistants. Things get more interesting where self-driving and charging infrastructure intersect: robotaxi and mobility fleets like Moia need predictable, automated charging processes, a topic we cover in autonomous valet charging explained. If you're focused on the more immediate question of keeping your own EV charged today, our complete guide to EV fast charging covers the basics.

In the end, comparing BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, and Waymo reveals one thing above all: self-driving is no longer purely a technology race, it's also a question of business model. German automakers still largely treat these systems as an equipment option on privately owned cars, while Waymo thinks in miles driven, rides completed, and fleet data. Which model wins out over the next few years will be decided by concrete numbers, not announcements.

Additional Video

For a firsthand look at what BMW's Level 3 system actually feels like on the road, this hands-on ride review adds the concrete, real-world detail that a purely market-level comparison can't capture.

Source: BMWBLOG – I rode in a self-driving BMW