VW, D-Wave Take Quantum Leap into Traffic Management

Volkswagen AG is teaming with quantum computing company D-Wave Systems Inc. on a research program that aims to optimize traffic flow management.

At next week’s CeBIT computer conference in Hanover, Germany, the partners plan to demonstrate a software program that aggregates data from 10,000 taxis in Beijing. VW claims to be the first carmaker to use non-binary quantum computers, which use the principles of quantum mechanics to enable faster, more powerful computing.

VW says it has developed an algorithm to optimize the overall travel time of Beijing’s taxi fleet. Quantum computers are well-suited for the project because they can calculate optimization strategies on how to best use resources such as time, money or energy for complex situations, according to the partners.

VW data scientists and artificial intelligence specialists in Munich and San Francisco are working with D-Wave on the Beijing taxi program. The carmaker also plans to involve universities and scientific institutes in future quantum computing, which it expects to eventually apply to autonomous vehicles, automated factories and AI-based processes, machine learning and new mobility services.

British Columbia-based D-Wave was founded in 1999. The company released its first commercial system in 2010 and has doubled the computing capabilities every two years. The D-Wave 2000Q system launched earlier this year has an industry-best 2,000 “quantumbits” of processing power.