For Peter Bosch it is an appointment that has a lot of symbolic power. This week, shortly after an appearance at the IAA Mobility car show in Munich, the head of Volkswagen’s software division Cariad made his way to Ingolstadt to the north. There sits the VW brand Audi, which expects a lot from the 49-year-old manager. Cariad’s problems have shaken up Audi massively. The all-important Q6 E-Tron SUV is two years behind schedule due to software issues. The car is now about to be launched – and in Ingolstadt, Bosch and Audi boss Gernot Döllner bent over a pre-series model to test functions together.
Döllner has only been in office for a few days. And Peter Bosch is also new to his role. In June he took over the top position in the notorious VW software division Cariad. She had kept the group in suspense for months because the technology development was anything but smooth. Cariad became entangled in trench warfare with the VW brands Audi and Porsche. In the meantime, the group’s entire model planning began to falter. The graduate engineer Bosch is now to realign the division. Cariad is becoming more efficient and competitive – a “real tech company,” he said at the IAA.