With hundreds of ID. Buzz AD shuttles officially rolling out across multiple European and U.S. cities as of 2026, Volkswagen is positioning itself among the frontrunners in a multi-billion-dollar global growth market. At the heart of this ambitious rollout is a sophisticated sensor suite that includes nine Innoviz LiDAR units per vehicle, a configuration that represents years of strategic product decisions, technical trade-offs, and collaborative partnerships between Innoviz, Mobileye, and Volkswagen.
This achievement extends far beyond a single vehicle deployment. It exemplifies how unwavering customer focus and strategic cross-industry collaboration can translate groundbreaking innovation from conceptual frameworks into operational excellence.
The Challenge: Bridging Diverse Detection Requirements Across Different Operational Environments
Autonomous mobility systems are expected to operate safely and consistently across fundamentally different environments, from high-speed highway driving to dense, unpredictable urban settings and complex infrastructure. Each scenario introduces distinct perception requirements, whether in range, resolution, field of view, or responsiveness.
Beyond environmental diversity, these systems must maintain reliable performance under adverse real-world conditions. Rain, fog, dust, and direct sunlight can impact visibility, while temporary or persistent sensor obstructions – from water and mud to flying insects – can limit sensor coverage and create blind spots. Ensuring accurate detection and tracking despite all of these is critical to maintaining safe and consistent operations.
At the same time, these systems must support both real-time onboard decision-making and broader mobility ecosystems, all under strict safety and reliability expectations and, again, within various landscape and lighting conditions. Designing a sensing strategy that performs reliably across this full spectrum presents a significant technical, architectural, and scalability challenge.
The Solution: A Strategic Portfolio Approach
At Innoviz, we recognized early that a single LiDAR configuration could not adequately address the full spectrum of autonomous driving requirements. This insight led us to develop a comprehensive portfolio approach:
InnovizTwo Long-Range was engineered to meet both consumer and commercial needs, delivering high-res detection capabilities of up to 300 meters. This extended range, along with a pre-configured frame rate of 10 or 20 FPS and maximum field-of-view of 120°x43°, provides the conditions necessary for safety-critical decisions at high speed. When combined with in-product flexibility, fitting both highways and urban environments, they give autonomous systems the time and information needed to identify and track objects well in advance of potential interactions.
InnovizTwo Short- to Mid-Range, the “missing piece” in Innoviz’s product portfolio, was designed to meet the demanding performance and safety requirements of light commercial vehicles, shuttles, and robotaxis such as the VW ID. Buzz AD. With a maximum detection range of 135 meters, this system combines high-resolution detection with an exceptional vertical field of view exceeding 70 degrees. This wide aperture enables the system to capture detailed environmental information from ground level to overhead obstacles, supporting navigation even in complex urban environments.
Our next step for the portfolio was adding smaller LiDAR, enabling further flexibility for commercial vehicle engineers interested in maintaining current vehicle design (via a behind-the-windshield solution), getting rid of bulky sensor banners, and reducing overall costs of the elaborated sensor suite required. InnovizThree is 60% smaller and lighter than InnovizTwo Long-Range, yet it offers a detection range of up to 300 meters. The LiDAR also ensures minimal in-cabin acoustic noise and power consumption in both L3 passenger cars and L4 shuttles and robotaxis.
This multi-system approach represents more than a technological decision. It embodies a fundamental product management principle: deeply understanding customer requirements and architecting the optimal solution portfolio to address them comprehensively.
Lessons in Product Leadership
Reflecting on this development journey, several insights have proven particularly valuable:
Integration as a Strategic Imperative. Innovation in the automotive industry achieves its full potential only when successfully integrated. Our collaboration with Mobileye and Volkswagen demonstrates that product objectives must prioritize seamless integration into the customers’ system architectures from the earliest development stages.
Customer-Centered Design Approach. While technical specifications and performance metrics provide essential benchmarks, the ultimate measure of success lies in solving authentic real-world challenges. That’s why each product addresses specific customer pain points, whether detecting a child entering a crosswalk or identifying hazardous road conditions before they cause accidents.
Scalability as a Foundational Requirement. True innovation extends beyond demonstrating technical feasibility. It requires building solutions that can be manufactured consistently, validated rigorously, and deployed at commercial scale across different use cases and vehicle platforms. As of 2025, we are mass manufacturing all LiDARs listed above on Fabrinet’s facility in Thailand, with no compromises when it comes to product quality control.
Looking Ahead
The ID. Buzz AD represents more than a technological achievement; it demonstrates what becomes possible when vision, technical excellence, and disciplined execution converge. For me personally, it serves as a powerful reminder that product management’s essential role is to function as the critical bridge: between technology and customer needs, between ambitious vision and practical reality.
At Innoviz, we take considerable pride in the role our LiDAR technology plays in enabling safer, more intelligent mobility solutions, whether on vehicles navigating our streets or infrastructure systems to keep our roads safe. As I look toward the future of autonomous transportation and smart infrastructure, I’m confident this milestone represents not a destination, but rather the beginning of a transformative journey in how we move through our world.
I invite you to explore the future of road safety and autonomous driving with me. To schedule a meeting, reach out to sales@innoviz-tech.com or connect with me directly on LinkedIn.