The Cariad unit has been a top priority at Volkswagen since the end of the year, but even before that software was probably not such a buzz word for anyone as it was for Herbert Diess (63). Even under his responsibility for the most important area on the Group Executive Board, little has changed for the better there. Diess and Cariad boss Dirk Hilgenberg are trying to capture the negative headlines with LinkedIn posts. However, an internal McKinsey paper paints an alarming picture: The problems in the software architecture are so serious that billions in additional costs are likely to be incurred and model launches are sometimes delayed by years. Much worse than previously known. My colleague Michael Freitag describes in detail the extent of the mismanagement: Why Volkswagen’s tech vision is failing
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Deep Drive of the Week: Fear on Two Wheels
Next week, June 3rd to be precise, is World Bicycle Day. Cycling is booming – at least in theory. In everyday life there are obviously still many inhibitions. This is shown by an Ipsos analysis
. The market researchers surveyed more than 20,000 people and found out: In Germany, only one in five (21 percent) most frequently uses the bike as a means of transport for short distances of up to two kilometers. This means that the bicycle is not only behind your own feet (33 percent), but also – you guessed it – behind the car (31 percent). The main problem: 42 percent of those surveyed find cycling in their area too dangerous.
Number of the week: one million
From one boom to the next: rail travel has probably never been so popular. The advance sale start of the 9-euro ticket triggered a real run. More than a million tickets were sold on Monday and Tuesday alone. The fact that the servers were temporarily down due to the onslaught was a gift. It’s likely to get hotter when the fight for places on the regional trains breaks out. DB Regio wants to provide a good 50 more trains, CEO Jörg Sandvoß (64) but apparently doesn’t really believe that that’s enough:
“Just as a sudden traffic jam on the freeway delays travel, this can also happen on the train when traffic is very heavy.”
After Renault was forced to sell its shares in the largest Russian carmaker Avtovaz to the Russian state at a ridiculous price, a new CEO is now being installed. In the future, Maxim Sokolov (53) will be in charge
. He was Russia’s transport minister from 2012 to 2018. Just imagine: Andreas Scheuer (47) would soon take over in Wolfsburg.
I wish you an eventful week!
Sincerely yours, Christoph Seyerlein