BERLIN -- Volkswagen has ended its partnership with self-driving car software firm Aurora, two days after the Silicon Valley startup said it would build autonomous platforms for commercial vehicles with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
"The activities under our partnership have been concluded," a VW spokesman said in a statement on Tuesday following an earlier Financial Times report on the move that said VW now wanted to work with Ford on autonomous driving.
VW and Ford announced last June they were in talks to develop a range of commercial vehicles, later extending the discussions to include electric and autonomous cars as part of an alliance designed to save billions in costs.
Aurora, which said in February it had raised $530 million in new funding, also has partnerships with Hyundai Motor and China's Byton to develop and test self-driving systems for automakers, fleet owners and others.
VW announced a strategic partnership with Aurora at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The automaker tried to buy Aurora but was rebuffed because the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company wanted to maintain its independence and work with multiple automakers, Bloomberg reported in August 2018.
