Cariad and Volkswagen – a difficult relationship
An ID.3 from Volkswagen with Cariad inscription: The car company’s new software unit is not making good progress with the work.
(Photo: dpa)
Currently, most VW cars are running software version E1.1. Thousands of developers have been working on version E2.0 since 2020, which should allow automated driving by 2025. Many programmers were borrowed from the subsidiaries Audi and Porsche in order to bring as much impact as possible to the project. But five years is a long time in a group that is in competition with the constantly innovative US manufacturer Tesla. The electric Porsche Macan will roll off the assembly line from 2023, and the Audi A6 e-tron has been promised to customers by 2024 at the latest. Both are waiting for new software from Cariad.
According to the company, Audi boss Markus Duesmann and Porsche leader Oliver Blume were not satisfied with the schedule. They did not consider the current E1.1 software to be competitive with Tesla, but they did not want to wait until 2025 either. Blume and Duesmann therefore insisted on an intermediate level, called E1.2. It was supposed to be finished by the end of 2021, but it wasn’t.
Instead, a scramble for resources began. Cariad developers working on E2.0 were pulled for the E1.2 release. Audi and Porsche are now hoping that the interim version will be ready in 2024 – three years behind schedule. The catch: there are no developers for the software version E2.0.
No updates possible
Insiders report that this is just the beginning of the problems. Not only did Audi, Porsche and VW compete for programmers. There aren’t even any synergies between the two software versions. Tens of thousands of hours of work that go into one version are lost in the other. A Cariad spokesman confirmed the Handelsblatt: “The versions E1.2 and E2.0 will run separately from each other permanently.”
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The E2.0 software is based on an architecture with a small number of computers and computer chips from Qualcomm. E1.2 uses more ECUs with different chips. An update from E1.2 to E2.0 is impossible. Insiders report that the E1.2 version for the luxury brands Audi and Porsche will be ready earlier, but is inferior to the E2.0 version for VW customers. For example, fully automated driving on the freeway is not possible with E1.2. The infotainment functions are also limited compared to the E2.0 version. Will the buyers of a Porsche Macan or Audi e-tron accept the fact that the software quality is inferior to that of the drivers of a future mass-market VW model? Many in the group are already throwing up their hands over their heads because of the misery that has been laid out for years to come
More: Herbert Diess is under pressure: criticism of the VW software unit Cariad is growing.