Continental relies on cooperation in the development of car operating systems.
(Photo: Elektrobit)
Dusseldorf One of the most important tasks for car manufacturers and suppliers at the moment is the development of a car operating system. The second largest German supplier Continental now wants to increase its own development speed with the help of a stake in the German-American start-up Apex.AI.
The young company, behind which the German electrical engineer and former Bosch manager Jan Becker stands, is regarded as a very promising specialist in the industry. In addition to Conti, ZF, Toyota, Jaguar Land Rover and Hella have already invested in Apex. With the recently completed financing of 56.5 million euros, Apex has raised a total of 74 million euros from investors.
To put it simply, Apex offers customers ready-made software components on the basis of which car operating systems can be programmed. This should enable software prototypes to be made ready for series production much more quickly.
The largest German car manufacturers, above all Volkswagen, have set themselves ambitious goals for their car software. Around the year 2024, they want to equip their vehicles with operating systems with which drivers can interact in a similar way to the well-known smartphone operating systems Android and Apple’s iOS. It is true that car manufacturers want to develop more software on their own more than in the past. However, they cannot do without the support of their suppliers.
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Continental now hopes to be able to take a shortcut with Apex, as Frank Petznick, head of the business unit for automated driving, explains in an interview with the Handelsblatt. “Thanks to Apex, we can significantly accelerate our middleware development. Our software engineers do not have to develop any relevant fundamentals, ”says the Conti manager. “Instead, they can focus on application software. One example would be the software for automated driving. “
There will be a division of tasks between Apex and Conti, as Apex founder Becker explains. The computer hardware and the basic software, thanks to which the hardware becomes functional, come from Continental. “The middleware is attached to this basic software and ensures that all software programs communicate smoothly with one another. Large parts of this middleware can be programmed quickly and safely using Apex.AI, ”says Becker.
Continental is thus pursuing a different strategy than its competitor Bosch. The foundation group relies less on cooperation. Instead, Bosch and its subsidiary Etas are trying to develop a large part of the software for the car themselves. According to Petznick, Conti would also be able to do this. But the supplier is taking a different approach. “If there is high-performance software on the market, then we use it instead of laboriously recreating it. That saves time and resources, ”says Petznick.
For example, Conti is cooperating with the US sensor specialist AEye in the lidar area. When it comes to artificial intelligence, the supplier relies on cooperation with Horizon Robotics, among other things. The aim of all of the holdings is to be able to implement technological leaps more quickly.
Car manufacturers go through a learning process
And speed is the order of the day in car software development. Because the ambitious schedules of the car manufacturers are shaky. It is said from corporate circles that VW’s software unit Cariad could be delayed by a year to 2025 with the introduction of a VW operating system.
According to Becker, car manufacturers are currently going through a learning process in software development. “You are now realizing how important it is to make your own developers efficient. And the efficiency of software development increases significantly with good tools and common platforms, ”says Becker.
According to Petznick, software development is usually more difficult for traditional car manufacturers than for suppliers. The learning curves and schedules that the car manufacturers have drawn up themselves are very ambitious. “This is why the cooperation between the carmaker and suppliers for the non-differentiating software components – including the middleware – has great advantages.”
It has already been leaked that Cariad could enter into a cooperation with Bosch. Conti is also in close contact with VW’s software unit. However, the Cariad is one of many potential customers, says Petznick. “With our cooperation with Apex, we want to position ourselves more broadly. There are numerous other car manufacturers for whom our application software could be of interest. “
More: Volkswagen and Bosch are about to cooperate on auto software.