The Volkswagen Group is enhancing road safety through a data-driven European initiative

• The Volkswagen Group’s brands intend to further optimize driver assistance systems in the future by analyzing sensor and image data from vehicles, as well as real-world traffic situations
• The initiative is expected to lead to an overall improvement in road safety
• Customer consent is a fundamental prerequisite
• The rollout is expected in approximately 40 European countries, starting in January 2026

Budapest, January 16, 2026 – The Volkswagen Group is committed to further improving road safety across Europe for all road users. Building on positive experiences in Germany, the Group aims to expand its program for the use of sensor and image data from vehicles to approximately 40 European countries—including Hungary. The goal is the continuous optimization of driver assistance systems and automated driving functions using data from real-world traffic situations. Customers can benefit from these improvements through software updates for their vehicles. The continuous development of driving functions increases comfort and has a positive impact on road safety as a whole. Customer consent is required to use this data—of course, in full compliance with all national and European data protection regulations. The program will launch in January 2026 with Volkswagen Passenger Cars, followed by the CUPRA, Škoda, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Audi, and Porsche brands.

The Volkswagen Group’s diverse fleet of vehicles is already helping to improve road safety. Among other things, the vehicles use anonymized “aggregated data” to generate high-resolution maps. This helps vehicles maintain their lane even on road sections without lane markings. This feature also enables more accurate driving recommendations and hazard warnings, which can be further refined by local weather conditions. This “collective knowledge” is already making transportation safer for everyone.

To continuously improve driver assistance systems, engineers at the Volkswagen Group now intend to use data from real-world traffic situations. This data is far more practical than tests conducted with prototypes or simulations. The goal is to create driver assistance functions that customers actually find useful and, ideally, use on a regular basis. At the same time, these active systems enhance safety not only for drivers but for all road users.

Data transfer only in exceptional circumstances

In their work, engineers focus on specific situations where driver-assistance systems are particularly useful. These might include traffic situations involving cyclists and pedestrians—such as an intersection near an elementary school—or the complex parking lots of busy shopping centers.

Data may be transmitted when the emergency braking assistant is activated, or in the event of full-force braking or a sudden evasive maneuver by the driver. In these situations, certain sensor, functional, and image data are particularly relevant. This includes camera images of the vehicle’s surroundings, detection results from environmental sensors, as well as direction of travel, speed, and steering angle. Information regarding weather, visibility, and lighting conditions also plays an important role.

Here’s a clear example: the vehicle must analyze movements at crosswalks and on sidewalks as accurately as possible. If the camera detects pedestrians heading toward the road—such as children playing—the vehicle can pre-charge the brakes so it can brake even faster in an emergency. However, continuous data transmission does not occur for this purpose.

The customer’s consent is required in all cases for the transfer and processing of data. This consent can be given in various ways, which may vary by brand—for example, as a setting available in the customer profile. Consent may be withdrawn at any time.

Data transmission may also affect pedestrians and cyclists

Data collection and transmission may also extend to other vehicles or road users—such as pedestrians and cyclists—in the given environment. This is essential because camera-based systems must accurately detect objects and people, even under adverse conditions, and correctly assess complex traffic situations.

Throughout this process, the group strictly complies with all data protection regulations and does not treat information that could be used to uniquely identify individuals in the transportation environment as relevant.

Interested parties can visit the central privacy websites of the Volkswagen Group brands—starting from the moment a brand joins the program—to request further information or review details regarding the Volkswagen Group’s data collection practices and the privacy statements of the individual brands.

The Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand—which is the first to launch this Europe-wide initiative to improve road safety—has made its privacy policy available at the following link:

traffic-safety (https://datenschutz.volkswagen.de/download/get-document-content/hu-HU/traffic-safety)

For more information:

Tamás Bognár

Head of Communications

+36 1 4515 172

[email protected]

Zoltán Kovács

Data Protection Officer

+36 1 4515 254

[email protected]