VW seeks 'pay-as-you-go' model for driverless cars to bypass Tesla
Herbert Diess, chief executive of Volkswagen, said his company can remain a leading car manufacturer and bypass Tesla only if it steps up its software game.
Volkswagen chief executive Herbert Diess has said his company can remain a leading car manufacturer and bypass Tesla only if it steps up its software game. That makes the company’s Cariad unit a linchpin of its long-term success.
So far, things have not gone smoothly. The division — set up in 2020 after a previous digital push went awry — introduced a toolkit for VW’s ID series of electric cars, the first model of which debuted with missing features.
Development of a premium software architecture has been plagued by infighting, delaying models including a battery-powered version of Porsche’s Macan compact sport utility vehicle.
VW is working to build an operating system that is scalable across its brands and capable of frequent over-the-air updates to enable enhancements such as driver-assistance features — areas where Tesla is well ahead.
VW’s supervisory board is concerned about shortcomings at Cariad and seeking an overhaul of the business to speed up decision-making, German media have reported.
In an interview, Cariad’s CEO Dirk Hilgenberg said when he first started there were a number of challenges to face.
"But there was also a big backpack with a lot of tasks in it that needed to be sorted out. We did that, and we’re still doing that because it’s part of the mission. Some ideas did materialise and some we needed to correct because reality hits and you need to deliver software," he said.
He said the layout for its next group-wide architecture was similar to what Tesla had initially brought in, "but we wanted to jump a step further ahead".
"That means high integration, more compute power and of course a different scope. We have vehicles starting from the entry level to the latest luxury Bentley, which of course have very different software and hardware needs," he said.
"But, of course, the vehicle is much more complex than business applications, for example, so we have to make sure that data protection, security and safety is on a completely different level," Mr Hilgenberg said.
On driverless cars, Mr Hilgenberg said there was already "a subscription model" where "you can drive autonomously if you want, for the next 50 miles. We would support that. We could give you autonomous driving for the next 50 miles, so you can relax or sleep or do whatever".
He said in ironman terms, we’re just getting out of the water and now we’re on the bike. We still have a marathon ahead of us".
• Bloomberg
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