FRANKFURT -- Audi will join an alliance with rivals Daimler and BMW to develop advanced autonomous driving systems, German weekly Wirtschaftswoche said on Thursday.

BMW and Daimler said in July they have entered into a long-term development partnership to develop highly automated driving functions to enable "hands off" autonomous driving on highways as well as automated parking.

BMW said at the time the non-exclusive cooperation is open to other automakers and technology partners.

Audi, a unit of Volkswagen Group, will announce it is joining the alliance at the Frankfurt auto show in early September, Wirtschaftswoche said.

VW will continue to develop fully autonomous vehicles in cooperation with Ford, the report said.

Automakers are being driven to team up by the massive development costs of key technologies in which they face competition from internet giants such as Alphabet's Waymo.

Audi, BMW and Daimler already work together after buying Nokia's mapping company Here in 2015.

In 2018, BMW and Daimler merged their short-term rental services Car2Go and DriveNow in a bid to create more of a presence in the developing mobility market.