SAN FRANCISCO, July 6 (Reuters) - Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) said on Thursday that it plans to launch autonomous, or self-driving, vehicles for ride hailing and goods delivery services in Austin, Texas by 2026. The company took over nearly 100 people from Argo, as well as its hub in Austin where Argo was testing autonomous vehicles. "The big aim is that we bring fully autonomous vehicles to the market as a commercial, scalable product," said Christian Senger, a Volkswagen board member who oversees development of autonomous driving. Volkswagen joins GM's Cruise and Alphabet's Waymo in testing autonomous vehicles in Austin, Texas, known for the least restrictive regulations on self-driving cars. But Tesla, Cruise and Waymo and other firms have missed their targets to launch self-driving cars and their vehicles have had difficulty in handling rare and unforeseen driving situations.

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Persons: Argo, Christian Senger, Cruise, We're, Katrin Lohmann, Hyunjoo Jin, Rashmi Organizations: FRANCISCO, Mobileye, Volkswagen, Argo, Volkswagen ADMT, Companies, Thomson Locations: Austin , Texas, Austin