The German and US carmakers announced in January that they are to jointly build commercial vans and medium-sized pickups, and that they were to investigate working together on autonomous vehicles. Aurora was founded by former executives from Google, Tesla and Uber with a view to muscling into the increasingly crowded self-driving sector which has drawn in carmakers, tech firms and equipment groups. Online giant Amazon is one of its investors. "Volkswagen Group has been a wonderful partner to Aurora since the early days of development of the Aurora Driver," a spokesperson for the US firm told AFP. "We continue to work with a growing array of partners who complement our expertise and expand the reach of our product." Italian-US group Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced Monday that it was partnering with Aurora. AFP