If “robo-cars” are really to become suitable for everyday use in the second half of the decade, special hardware and software will be required. Volkswagen is concretizing its plans for this.
For the development of autonomous and highly automated driving, the Volkswagen Group is bringing the next heavyweight on board with the US chip manufacturer Qualcomm after Bosch.
From the middle of the decade, the Americans will be taking over the equipment of various new models from Europe’s largest car group, as the VW software division Cariad announced.
It is about a “system on chip” that was designed for technologies related to complex assistance functions up to self-driving cars. VW boss Herbert Diess announced that all group vehicles that will later receive uniform software from Cariad would be equipped with Qualcomm technology. The Trinity, which will start in 2026, is to be built on a completely new platform. At the same time, the company is working more closely with its partners Intel and Mobileye than before.
The Wolfsburg-based company announced in January that it would seek support from Bosch for the software for autonomous driving applications. Bosch, in turn, wants to strengthen itself in this area with acquisitions.
In terms of hardware, VW is also pursuing plans to build its own chip design. The electric car company Tesla is a role model. The cooperation with Qualcomm is also an important step in strengthening Cariad’s own capabilities in high-performance semiconductors, it said.
More internal capacities
Basically, the group wants to create more internal capacities in the coming years in order to have tailor-made systems available. The Qualcomm parts are suitable for being precisely adapted to the planned software platform, explained Cariad.
So far, there should still be friction in the vote. Subsidiaries like Audi or Porsche have separate IT concepts. At an event organized by the “Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung” and the “Wolfsburger Nachrichten”, Diess said: “This development of software competence is the greatest upheaval that the automotive industry has to master. I think we’re on the right track.” After the difficult start-ups with the Golf 8 and ID.3, newer software versions have worked better.
Change to a digital group with IT development challenging
The change from a pure car manufacturer to a digital group with its own IT development is “an issue that we will not have finally solved in five years”. Tesla also took a long time. The structural break is “dramatic and also a bit traumatic for our industry,” said Diess.
Qualcomm is already equipping some other automakers. In the medium term, however, it makes sense to design at least some of the electronic applications in the vehicle yourself based on a basic architecture – also in view of the semiconductor crisis. In this way, manufacturers can arrange control unit elements directly with the chip producers instead of having to rely on preliminary products from intermediary suppliers. In addition, the company’s own software should remain continuously updatable.
The aim is to “send systems that have been designed in-house into the car”, as Diess said. “That’s a really big challenge for our industry, because we’ve hardly made any software ourselves before – Bosch and Conti did that for us. We then bought that with the computers.”
Central topic also for the supervisory board and works council
On the VW supervisory board, the hitherto somewhat choppy start of Cariad is one of the issues that are of strategic importance. “As a company, we must also significantly enrich our basis of expertise in the field of chip design and penetrate the entire business so that we are able to make our own contributions here,” said chief controller Hans Dieter Pötsch last year. The new head of the works council and member of the supervisory board, Daniela Cavallo, also sees this as a key issue. “That’s recognized here – but it will take a certain amount of time until everything is finally set up,” she said recently. VW has also put around two billion euros into the start-up Argo AI operated with Ford.
Qualcomm is also active in other areas. The Californians produce main processors for smartphones, for example, and their technology is also found in Apple products.
Source: Stern
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
