Volkswagen are bolstering their Car.Software organisation, and setting it up to operate as an independent business unit. As a Group company, Car.Software will centralise the associates and subsidiaries within the Group that develop car software and software for the digital ecosystem.
Initially, around 3,000 digital experts from software-related associates and subsidiaries will be grouped together in this unit. Car.Software will be based at Audi Electronics Venture, and will also operate at other German and international sites.
In addition to integrating the associates and subsidiaries, the goal is to win skilled professionals from the Volkswagen Passenger Cars, Audi and Porsche brands for a transfer to the Car.Software organisation. Over time, the number of experts will be sustainably increased through new hires, strategic acquisitions, and further partnerships. By 2025, more than 10,000 digital experts at Car.Software will develop software for vehicles and related digital ecosystems, as well as for customer-centric functions at dealers. In the long term, further development of Car.Software will be pursued, using the target vision of a software brand within the Group with its own brand design.
Car.Software is being positioned to play a key role in achieving Volkswagen’s aim to boost the in-house share of car software development from the current figure of less than 10% to at least 60% by 2025. The organisation will develop cross-brand software in five domains: Connected Car & Device Platform, Intelligent Body & Cockpit, Automated Driving, Vehicle Motion & Energy, and Digital Business & Mobility Services. The objective is to establish one uniform software architecture in the Group and bring together parallel development paths in the brands.
The domains will cover the development work on a groupwide vehicle operating system—vw.os—for all Group vehicles and their connection to the Volkswagen Automotive Cloud; a standardised infotainment platform; all assistance systems including highly automated driving functions such as a motorway or parking garage pilot in cars for end customers; software functions for connecting the drive system; chassis and charging technology, and ecosystems for all of the brands’ mobility services and digital business models.
Having a uniform software architecture will enable Volkswagen to generate sizable economies of scale in the Group, substantially reducing per-vehicle software costs across all brands, and Car.Software will invest over €7bn by 2025.