When autonomous driving becomes the most important weight of smart electric vehicles, traditional car giants such as Volkswagen are also anxious.
According to foreign media reports, Volkswagen's software company Cariad and auto parts supplier Bosch Group have reached a cooperation to jointly develop autonomous driving software for Volkswagen. According to the plan, Volkswagen passenger cars will be equipped with autonomous driving software jointly developed by the two companies in 2023.
Bosch said that the company is working with Volkswagen to develop L2 level autonomous driving systems for cities and highways, in addition, L3 level automatic driving systems for off-hand driving on highways are also under development.
It is reported that during the peak period of cooperation, the two companies will have 1,000 employees involved in the project, for which Bosch said that both companies are considering recruiting new employees for the project. The parties agreed not to disclose financial details.
Cariad CEO Dirk Hilgenberg said after this collaboration with Bosch: "Autonomous driving is key to the future of our industry. This underscores our ambition to provide the best solution for our customers as soon as possible. ”
It is worth noting that this is the second major cooperation project between Volkswagen and Bosch this year, and last week, Volkswagen announced that it has reached an agreement with Bosch to jointly build a battery company, planning to set up a joint venture at the end of this year to provide battery production systems while assisting battery manufacturers to expand production scale and maintain production bases.
In recent years, the Volkswagen Group has been transmitting the urgent need for transformation to the outside world. In December 2021, Volkswagen announced that it will increase its investment in electric vehicles and digitalization over the next five years, amounting to 89 billion euros (about $101 billion). That same month, Volkswagen announced a number of personnel changes, and Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess, known for his radical transformational attitude, was appointed to take over the software division Cariad earlier this year.
Under the leadership of Diess, Volkswagen will invest more energy in software research and development in the next step. According to Volkswagen's goal, Cariad will provide 60% of Volkswagen's software by 2025, a six-fold increase from 10% when the division was founded.
For the self-driving business, Volkswagen's plans seem to be more than self-development. It is understood that Volkswagen and the Bosch Group will develop a "state-of-the-art software platform" for "partial and highly automated driving" so that the platform can be applied to all Volkswagen models. At the same time, the related components developed by the two companies may also be integrated into the models of other automakers.
At present, European auto giants are vigorously carrying out changes on electrification and intelligence, including BMW, Daimler and other companies are investing heavily in autonomous driving research and development, digital transformation. Volkswagen's goal of surpassing Tesla by 2025 in July last year will not be easy to achieve, and it can be seen that Volkswagen is making more efforts for its goals.
In addition to cooperation with Bosch, Volkswagen was exposed in October 2021 that it planned to establish a joint venture with Huawei to develop autonomous driving technology, and it was reported that Su Zhen, a former executive of Huawei's autonomous driving business line and director of the intelligent driving products department, would join the joint venture. In early January, Volkswagen China CEO Feng Sihan said in a response to the media that Volkswagen and Huawei did have relevant discussions on the joint venture of autonomous driving, but there is no confirmable news.
On January 16, Su Zhen confirmed his departure from Huawei, and its next destination is rumored to be the CTO of the joint venture with Huawei Volkswagen.
Whether the rumors are accurate or not, Volkswagen's current efforts to develop autonomous driving technology are being seen by the outside world. Joining forces with tech companies is a good idea, but it may not be easy to surpass Tesla in 2025.