Another update from Reuters Auto File
Volkswagen, CARIAD and the Software Defined Vehicle
Volkswagen’s software division, CARIAD, has emerged from an intensive review ordered by VW’s new Chief Executive with a plan to work toward a new, advanced, unified software architecture for future VW group vehicles one jump at a time, CARIAD chief Dirk Hilgenberg told Reuters.
“I call our program triple jump,” Hilgenberg said. “You do one jump after another.”
The next key step will be the launch of the Porsche Macan SUV in 2024, which will have the latest iteration of VW’s software architecture.
But the Macan will not represent what Hilgenberg said is the ultimate goal: A “unified” software and electronics architecture for VW vehicles built around powerful Qualcomm “system on a chip” semiconductors in Europe and North America, and comparable super-chips developed in China by VW and partner Horizon Robotics.
Hilgenberg’s comments at CES come ahead of an update on software progress Volkswagen has promised to give investors in March.
CARIAD’s bumpy journey illustrates why matching the upgradeable, high-feature software systems that Tesla and other EV startups are using in their vehicles is one of the biggest challenges facing legacy automakers.
Delays and cost overruns at CARIAD were one of the factors behind the VW supervisory board’s decision last summer to oust Herbert Diess as CEO and replace him with Porsche chief Oliver Blume.
Sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters a new software platform which would enable so-called Level 4 autonomous driving and was due to be implemented across the fleet from 2026, will be pushed back to the end of the decade. One source predicted a 2028 start was likely.
Hilgenberg declined to talk about dates. “Let’s deliver product,” he said. “See how that works and how much confidence we can create in society and (with) customers to actually apply it.”
Blume ordered a review of CARIAD’s strategy last year. Hilgenberg said that rethink took six weeks of “intensive workshops...sometimes emotional.”
The upshot, Hilgenberg said, will be a renewed focus on efficiency - though he said CARIAD does not plan to cut staff. CARIAD will focus on delivering so-called Level 3 automated driving on certain highways under certain conditions, in partnership with Bosch. Fully automated driving for consumers will come afterward.
The scope of CARIAD’s challenge has not changed. Hilgenberg shows a slide with three diagrams representing a car’s electronic systems: On the left is VW’s old approach, with 120 computers controlling distinct functions of the vehicle. On the far right is a schematic of a car ruled by one master “system on a chip” - fully upgradeable over the air and powerful enough to run automated driving systems, stream video to the dashboard and transmit data about driving behavior, charging habits, battery life and other functions back to VW via the Cloud.
That’s a system comparable to what Tesla has now.
Right now, VW is in the state represented by a diagram in the middle. It has deployed software that allows its EVs to be updated over the air. A generation 3.0 of the software for its ID line of EVs has been delivered that fixes what Hilgenberg called “teething problems” with earlier versions.
But getting to the end state - a car that can pilot itself on highways and serve as a platform for a rich array of software-enabled services - will require more years of work on two tracks: one for Europe and North America, another for China, built around the Horizon Robotics venture.
“We are not allowed to pull data out of China,” Hilgenberg said. VW also wants to protect itself against the risk of geopolitical tensions that could lead China’s government to ban the use of Qualcomm chips.
Then there’s the challenge of dealing with the tech industry giants. VW is not going to try to reinvent the music streaming service of Spotify, for example, Hilgenberg said. But VW does not want to hand over to the “hyperscalers” control of data generated as customers interact with their dashboards, he said.
Volkswagen wants to convince tech and digital media companies to be guests in the software house it owns - perhaps by offering access to VW’s millions of owners for less than the 30% cut that Apple takes in its app store, Hilgenberg said.
VW - and other legacy automakers - are under increasing pressure to match what Silicon Valley venture capitalist Evangelos Simoudis calls the “flagship experience” Tesla and other EV startups can offer using their advanced software architectures.
One indicator of how software is eating the automotive world: Motor Trend, the venerable automotive enthusiast magazine, is now handing out awards for software-defined vehicle innovation.
and in closing
We’re gonna need more chargers
The number of electric vehicle chargers in the United States will need to expand eight-fold from the current 140,000 by 2030 to support EV sales, S&P Global Mobility concludes in a new report Monday.
EVs account for less than 1% of vehicles on the road in the United States today, S&P Global says. By 2030, the number of EVs on the road, and potentially hunting for a public charger, could rise to 28.3 million.