Goal: By 2030, the new software architecture will be installed on the Volkswagen Group's 40 million vehicle models.
Text/Zhang Xianglong
Volkswagen Group CEO Diess posted a long article on Weibo a few days ago, combing the group's benchmarking objects in the fields of brand, vehicle platform, software, battery and so on.
"In the process of transitioning to NEW AUTO, our competitors will not only be Mercedes-Benz, Toyota or Stellantis Group, but also Tesla, Foxconn, Apple, LG Electronics, Uber and so on. ”
At the same time, Diess also once again pointed out that the development of Volkswagen software company CARIAD, China business, will be one of the most urgent major issues at present.
Software platform three steps
Just yesterday, CARIAD's China subsidiary was established and officially announced its China strategy.
CARIAD, or "Car, I'm digital" (Car. I Am Digital) means, the predecessor is also the "DCS" software division that Diess first established in the leading digital transformation of Volkswagen, which was first managed by the head of the development of Volkswagen's MEB platform, and last year DCS changed its name to CARIAD, and the CEO was Dirk Hilgenberg, who was born in BMW's IT department.
And Diess himself is fully responsible for cariad soft department at the level of the group's board of directors, software is the core and weakness of Volkswagen in digital transformation, and it is most appropriate for Diess, the most radical reform, to grasp it personally.
CARIAD currently has 5,000 engineers and developers worldwide. At the level of investment funds, according to Diess himself, Volkswagen has more than 50% of its budget for investment in technology in the next five years, about 89 billion euros for electric mobility and digitalization, and specific to software digitalization, the investment will reach 30 billion euros.
Some people have money and the group boss Dies personally grasped, what is the goal of CARIAD's work?
According to the final plan, CARIAD is the need to build a unified software platform for all of the Group's brands by 2025, including a unified, extensible architecture (software stack E32.0 version).
This is similar to the "Android operating system" commonly used at the level of the Volkswagen Group, on the basis of which brands such as Audi and Porsche can be re-developed to form their own software systems.
But until this ultimate goal is achieved, CARIAD's current work will begin with two parts.
The first is the mass production software platform, which is suitable for the current MEB platform models, and the first thing is to realize the remote online update of the software on specific models, that is, OTA.
While the China team will lead the implementation of the ID.family series of products in China OTA, the first update is expected to be achieved in the second half of 2022.
Second, there is a high-end software platform, that is, a software architecture for PPE platforms.
The high-end software platform is scheduled to be launched in the next two years, which is also in line with the landing time of the MASS production model of the PPE platform.
This high-end software platform for the PPE platform will support advanced infotainment systems and advanced driver assistance systems based on the Android open source system, and support remote online updates on some Audi and Porsche brand models.
Similarly, the Chinese team will lead the development of China-specific applications for both systems.
Third, in the final plan reached in 2025, the launch of a new and unified underlying software architecture at the level of the Volkswagen Group, suitable for all brands under volkswagen in the future, to support Volkswagen's self-developed operating system VW. OS and connect to volkswagen cloud VW. AC, also pre-equipped with L4 level autonomous driving technology.
An interesting piece of information is that in the future development of volkswagen group's universal and new software architecture, the Chinese team will not only be responsible for local research and development and adaptation, but also develop data backends that meet data compliance requirements locally.
70% of the R&D work involving the new software platform technology stack and product line will be led and participated by the Chinese team.
China is important
Is China Important? The reason is probably from two points, one is the proportion of sales in the Chinese market itself, and the other is the vitality and growth of China's intelligent electric vehicle industry.
Last year, Volkswagen Group delivered 8.882 million vehicles worldwide, and delivered 3.3048 million vehicles in China, even if it fell by 14.1% year-on-year, the overall proportion still reached more than 30%, it should be said that China is not only Volkswagen's largest single market, but also its sales pillar.
On the other hand, the development of China's auto market in terms of intelligence and digital transformation is also obvious to all. This may be the battlefield with the largest number of smart electric vehicle players in the world, and there are also a considerable number of smart car users who have been raised by Tesla, Weilai, and Ideal Xiaopeng.
So for the public, it is not just to better serve China, the world's largest single market, in terms of digital experience.
Its future software development and intelligent experience are also the most nourishing in China, the most able to maintain speed and keep pace with the times.
As Changqing, CEO of CARIAD's China subsidiary, said: "We will develop, update and iterate on our products at a Chinese pace based on local customer experience." "The mission of the CARIAD China team is to "develop in China, innovate for China; develop in China, innovate for the world".
In fact, for the entire Volkswagen Group, one of the keys to the transformation is whether CARIAD, which dominates the development of software architectures, can achieve significant results.
And how effective CARIAD is in the end, China's most dynamic and "inner-volume" smart car market is the best touchstone, so China for Volkswagen CARIAD, may also really be related to success or failure.
Currently, carIAD's Chinese subsidiary has more than 600 employees by integrating IT talent from the Volkswagen Group (China), Volkswagen and Audi brands, and is expected to double by the end of 2023, of which more than 90% will be local software talents.
At the same time, CARIAD's China subsidiary is also cariad's first subsidiary outside Of Europe, and is building R&D forces in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Hefei, and gradually building a national distributed R&D network.
In the future, CARIAD's headquarters in Beijing will serve as a strategy and innovation center, Hefei as a testing and collection center, and Chengdu as the main business of human-computer interaction.
The goal of the entire Volkswagen Group is to have the technology stack developed by CARIAD running on more than 40 million Group vehicles worldwide by 2030.
In addition to the software side, the Chinese joint venture will also play a synergistic role in sales targets.
Speaking of which, at yesterday's CARIAD China subsidiary strategy conference, a picture may indicate the future position of Volkswagen Anhui, a new joint venture with 75% control and 100% operating rights.
In addition to volkswagen Anhui has a production base, unlike SAIC Volkswagen and FAW-Volkswagen, Volkswagen Anhui will also have greater flexibility and autonomy at the R&D level, and may mainly focus on R&D decisions in the field of cutting-edge automatic driving and software, and the future Volkswagen Anhui is likely to be a "dark horse" of Volkswagen's layout in China.
A surprise and a "cold meal"
Finally, at yesterday's strategy conference, in addition to the big goals, CARIAD China also showed some of the current achievements, which is a surprise and a "cold meal".
The surprise is Rainbow Composer, the development software showcased by CARIAD China.
Similar to the way vehicle functions and software technology are combined, through free combination, some intelligent scenes can be freely DIY.
As shown above, the toolbox displayed on the interface contains a range of vehicle-related features, including mood lights, air conditioning, seat settings, artificial intelligence, and infotainment services, which can be used to quickly customize new customer experiences for specific scenarios.
For example, the scene showed a scene where the car software theme color can be adjusted according to the color of the owner's clothes through the camera in the car.
And a "cold rice" is actually not cold, but it has shown C-V2X technology on Audi before.
During last year's World Internet of Things Expo, Audi demonstrated L4 autonomous driving that fused V2X signals in 13 use cases under the public road.
For example, based on the portable device to perceive pedestrians, the automatic deceleration of the warning signal of sudden crossing the road, the prohibited area based on the roadside unit, the early warning of thrown objects in the construction area, etc., are very interesting.
Among them, there are 3 C-V2X functions based on 5G cellular networks, which are first equipped on the Audi A7L and Audi A6L.
This time at the press conference, the technology was demonstrated as a smart interconnection solution led by CARIAD China team.
Finally, in general, volkswagen has been very clear about how to do in the future software planning related to the group's digital transformation, believes in Volkswagen's execution, and expects CARIAD and CARIAD China to have more output as soon as possible. But in the end, you might as well let the bullets fly a little longer.