Volkswagen Group says it is expanding a programme that uses sensor and image data from customer cars to sharpen driver-assistance and automated driving functions across much of Europe, with a rollout due to begin in January 2026.
Building on earlier use in Germany, the company said it plans to extend the approach to around 40 European countries as well as the UK.
Volkswagen Passenger Cars is scheduled to go first, followed by Cupra, Skoda, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Audi and Porsche.
Real-world traffic data should help engineers tune assistance systems more quickly than prototype testing or simulations alone.
Volkswagen Group said customers could receive improvements through software updates, and it argued that better, more trusted assistance functions are more likely to stay switched on, improving safety for drivers and those around them.
The group said parts of its fleet already contribute to road safety via anonymised “swarm” data used to create high-resolution maps. These could support functions such as lane guidance on roads without lane markings, plus driving recommendations and hazard alerts that take local weather into account.
For the expanded programme, Volkswagen Group said data transmission is triggered only in specific situations where assistance systems matter most.
Examples include areas with pedestrians and cyclists, such as near schools, and busy, complex car parks. Triggers could include emergency braking interventions, manual full braking, and sudden evasive manoeuvres.
The data set can include camera images of the vehicle’s surroundings, sensor detection outputs, and vehicle dynamics such as speed, direction and steering angle, alongside context like lighting, visibility and weather.
Volkswagen Group gave the example of a vehicle pre-charging brake pressure if pedestrians appear to be moving towards the road.
It stressed that continuous transmission is not used for this purpose, and that customer consent is required and can be withdrawn at any time, in line with national and EU data protection rules.
