Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
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Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
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Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#210,000 people that sounds like an overkill
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#3It's 5000-10000 people for the car software, connecticity, cockpit, autonomous driving, energy, mobility services, etc.
Many of them already work in the Volkswagen Group, but will be centralized working on common platforms.
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#410,000 people that sounds like an overkill
I don't know, how many cars do they have on the road? Must be at least 50 million or so. So 10,000 coders for 50 million users. And these users are, you know, driving cars around, so its kindof important to get the software right.
This sounds like a smart move by VW. Essentially Tesla are showing the way forwards here, being the first automaker to take software seriously.
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#510,000 people that sounds like an overkill
Yes, same feeling. If anything is wrong with Volkswagen, it is not their OS.
Reminds me of when Renault bought VAZ, the first thing VAZ did with new money was to boast of making "the first Russian car with a computer."
Them adding a computer to a car that falls apart as you drive just made Lada a shitty car with a computer, from a plainly shitty car.
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#6I think this is a result of automotive technical progress slowing down. And I don't mean that in a bad way.
For the past 100 years, we have been developing better and better cars, with both breakthroughs and incremental improvements in the drivetrain, safety, comfort, reliability, etc.
Now though, cars are consolidating. Most car companies only have a handful of 'platforms' on which they build various models. For example: Volvo currently only produces 3 models of combustion engines. We have reached a point where numerous subsystems are just 'good enough' and require little more R&D.
During the past 20 years or so, the software had to keep up with all the new tech coming out in the automotive world. Now that development of automotive hardware is slowing down, it is time to focus on the software for the long run.
Tesla has been doing this for a while now. Their electric drivetrain is at point where there is more for them to gain in software than improvement of the hardware. For other car manufactures it is a bit harder to accept that, as they have been developing hardware technology for a long time.
Edit: fixed my wrong example about Volvo, thanks to C1sc0cat
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#7The key takeaway for me here is that they want to build an Android-based OS that will run both user applications and, say, your traction control on the same stack. Given the very mixed history of Android security, updates, and more, I simply can't see how this would end well.
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#8I think this is a result of automotive technical progress slowing down. And I don't mean that in a bad way. For the past 100 years, we have been developing better and better cars, with both breakthroughs and incremental improvements in the drivetrain, safety, comfort, reliability, etc. Now though, cars are consolidating. Most car companies only have a handful of 'platforms' on which they build various models. For exa…
> Their electric drivetrain is at point where there is more for them to gain in software than improvement of the hardware.
Tesla is working on a new drivetrain for the Model S, Model X, and the Roadster 2:
https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/11/elon-musk-promises-to-take...
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#9The key takeaway for me here is that they want to build an Android-based OS that will run both user applications and, say, your traction control on the same stack. Given the very mixed history of Android security, updates, and more, I simply can't see how this would end well.
Android will just be for the infotainment subsystem.
Re: Volkswagen’s plan to create a new car operating system
#1010,000 people that sounds like an overkill
You will have some ISO26262 compliance managers, tons of safety managers, many many documentation writers. This software also must be tested with corresponding hardware, couple hundred people will look after this hardware alone. It’s not another app, it’s software tied to hardware and this is always slow and expensive.