Dusseldorf, Munich It should be a liberation. Volkswagen wanted to counter the headlines with a major software update for the electric ID models. Group boss Herbert Diess has been criticized for weeks for insufficient source code. “We’re learning, we’re catching up, we’re delivering,” Diess wrote at the start of Software 3.0.
But Diess’ early praise came too soon. The Handelsblatt learned from dealer circles: The update has not yet reached customers of older ID models. When new basic software was supposed to be installed in the VW workshops in April, the transfer came to a halt. About 200,000 vehicles are affected. From VW it is said that the distribution of the software will finally begin in a few days.
The road from traditional car manufacturer to tech group is bumpy for German manufacturers. The development of software-defined vehicles overwhelms them. Jan Becker is not surprised. “To date, there has not been a traditional car manufacturer that has established a consistent software platform,” says the founder of the software start-up Apex.ai. “A large part of the software is rewritten again and again for each model generation.”
In an emergency, BMW and Mercedes are pushing for cooperation with chip companies such as Nvidia or Qualcomm. Volkswagen, on the other hand, wants to develop more itself and in future generate up to a quarter of its sales of 250 billion euros with automated driving and entertainment solutions. Such sums attract powerful tech companies.
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At the beginning of last week, Apple caused a stir with the presentation of an extended “CarPlay”. Not only the content of an iPhone is mirrored on a vehicle screen. The new CarPlay will be adapted to all screens. It effectively takes control of a vehicle’s entire user interface.
Speed, range and navigation are also displayed in the instrument cluster in the “Apple design”. The first vehicles are to be equipped with the improved CarPlay in 2023. Apple also lists Mercedes, Audi and Porsche as well-known partners.
The software boss at Mercedes wants to have his own operating system ready in two years: “We are further than many think.”
(Photo: Daimler)
At least at Mercedes one is surprised about it. Because an agreement with Apple does not exist. According to the official statement, only options are being evaluated. Internally, the line at Mercedes is: “Only on our terms.” The Swabians want to continue to integrate the smartphone world into their vehicles, but under no circumstances want to integrate complete infotainment systems such as Google’s Android Automotive, in which the car manufacturer loses data sovereignty. “We reject that,” said Mercedes software boss Magnus Östberg to the Handelsblatt.
His group relies on its own operating system that controls everything from the drive to the infotainment to the apps – without an intermediary. “That’s the point. This is the only way we can learn to understand which features our customers like and which they don’t,” explains Östberg.
VW and BMW argue similarly. The Germans do not want to be degraded to sheet metal benders in the digital upheaval. But their expertise in the new world is limited. They have to make compromises and rely on different strategies.
Mercedes is pushing the pace – with the help of Nvidia
Mercedes wants to have its MB.OS operating system ready in two years at the latest. The Stuttgart-based company is still on schedule, assures digital guru Östberg: “We are much further along than some people out there think.” The reason: Mercedes deliberately does not develop its chip-to-cloud architecture on its own.
“Speed counts for us. And with strong partners we are faster,” says Östberg. His goal is a perfect symbiosis of hardware and software. Instead of the hundred control units per vehicle that are usual today, all bodies with a star are to have just a few domain controllers. That reduces complexity. This should start with the new CLA in the second half of 2024.
The core is the MB.OS, which consists of four domains: driving and charging, infotainment, autonomous driving as well as vehicle and comfort functions. Each area receives specifically different processors. Mercedes is silent on details, a capital market day is planned for July. Only in the case of highly automated driving is the partner already clear: Nvidia.
The US chip group will in future equip all Mercedes series with upgradeable computer architectures. Nvidia can be paid well for this service. More than 40 percent of the sales of software packages for automated driving end up with Nvidia.
Internally, this revenue share is controversial. Proponents at Mercedes point to the advantages: more know-how and lower expenses. MB.OS costs a total of more than four and a half billion euros.
Mercedes also relies on cooperation in other ways. For Ethernet communication, it works with the Swabian programmers from Vector Informatik. When it comes to infotainment, the Stuttgart-based company swears by a mix of open source and Linux. The US tech company Unity Technologies should help to create 3D interfaces with worlds flowing into one another instead of conventional tiles. “This is digital luxury,” explains Östberg. When it comes to app integration, his team also relies on the supplier Faurecia Aptoide.
Ultimately, the first version of MB.OS is only an “intermediate step”, insiders complain. The actually most effective solution, a fully centralized zone architecture with the shortest possible cable routes, could be implemented in 2027 or 2028 at the earliest.
It pays for itself that Mercedes neglected the development of electrical and electronic components and the associated software. Therefore, the maxim now applies: better second best than nothing.
BMW wants to make itself independent with its own middleware
In contrast to VW, the Munich-based company did not do a lot of PR when it came to updating their vehicles. BMW has been able to update via an Internet connection for much longer than Europe’s largest car company.
Like Mercedes, BMW is cooperating with a chip manufacturer on automated driving: Qualcomm. BMW is also developing the software with the US chip group. BMW does not reveal how future sales for the software packages will be divided. Since Qualcomm takes over the sales, the greater part should remain with the Americans.
Compared to the Mercedes-Nvidia model, there is obviously a difference in the BMW-Qualcomm constellation. Insiders report that the Munich-based company has quietly and secretly done the groundwork in software development over the past few years. “BMW developed a kind of simple middleware themselves,” says one person with knowledge of the matter.
Middleware ensures communication between the various software programs. “Thanks to this simple middleware, BMW’s software works independently of the hardware,” says the insider. Should BMW want to change the chip manufacturer in the future, the Bavarians would not have to rewrite the entire software.
Apex founder Becker sees this as a “game changer” for the auto industry. “This is the only way car manufacturers can achieve a balance of power with the chip companies. If that doesn’t succeed, they would be completely dependent on the chip manufacturers – especially in times of chip shortages,” says Becker.
But BMW is under time pressure. The first truly software-defined cars from Munich will not start until 2025, 13 years after Tesla’s Model S.
Volkswagen is ambitious – maybe too much
No established car manufacturer is pursuing such ambitious plans as VW. The people of Lower Saxony want to program at least 60 percent of the software in the car themselves. Together with Bosch, Cariad writes the algorithms for automated driving. These will run on Qualcomm chips from 2026.
It is still unclear which processor VW will use for infotainment. The talks on this are in the final phase. From corporate circles it is said that it will not be Qualcomm, you do not want to make yourself too dependent. Like BMW, VW is working on a middleware solution that would allow the software to run independently of the hardware, probably together with Bosch.
The software and the chip for automated driving and infotainment together form the so-called E2.0 architecture, behind which VW’s own operating system is hidden. But the schedule for the VW.OS is shaky because Cariad is still working on the E1.2 architecture. This interim solution uses completely different codes than E2.0. According to the group, only 30 percent of the software from the E1.2 architecture can be reused. The software for automated driving even has to be completely redesigned.
In addition: The Cariad employees are annoyed. Works council circles say that the employees have the impression that they are at the mercy of the power struggles around Wolfsburg. The CEOs of VW, Audi and Porsche would blame each other for not meeting schedules. This would take a backseat to the progress Cariad is making.
The failed software update for the ID models joins a long list of problems. Last year, VW promised its customers a software update every twelve weeks. But there are problems with the implementation.
“It somehow got under the wheels,” is the comment from Wolfsburg. The software developers are more than busy and have to postpone tasks. Everything will get better in the second half of the year – that is the new promise.
More: Without executives with programming skills on the board, the development of software-defined vehicles cannot succeed.