Volkwagen CEO says Waymo has one-two year headstart in autonomous cars

FILE PHOTO: Herbert Diess, Volkswagen's new CEO, poses during the Volkswagen Group's annual general meeting in Berlin, Germany, May 3, 2018. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt/File Photo

FRANKFURT: Volkwagen, Europe's largest carmaker, is up to two years of development work behind Alphabet Inc's Waymo in the area of self-driving cars but is committed to catching up, the German group's chief executive told newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

"We have to admit that Waymo, the Google business, is ahead of us, arguably by one or two years. But we are determined to catch up. The game is not yet lost. A lot depends also on regulation," CEO Herbert Diess was quoted as saying by the Sunday paper.