Upon the plan to develop self-driving cars, Volkswagen is partnering with Microsoft. Volkswagen AG will use Microsoft Corp’s cloud computing service to help it streamline its software development efforts.
Volkswagen’s self-driving cars project explained
Volkswagen, the owner of Audi and Porsche, has been working on the development of self-driving cars. Along with the project, Volkswagen is also developing driver-assistance features such as adaptive cruise control in current vehicles. The development for these features has been going independently by the two brands.
In 2020, Volkswagen unified these big projects into a subsidiary called Car.Software. According to Reuters, the software is made to provide easier coordination among the makers. Through the software, each company can handle its own work and feel of the software. However, both will still be collaborating on core safety functions like detecting obstacles.
Volkswagen: self-driving cars project to involve Microsoft
Volkswagen came into a problem with various companies in the group using different systems in developing the software. To solve the problem, Volkswagen decided to partner up with a common cloud provider, Microsoft. Both parties, noted from Reuters, inked the deal back in 2018. Through the deal on Thursday, both parties agree to update and develop the software on the same cloud, which will further beam the updates down to the cars.
Dirk Hilgenberg, chief executive of Car.Software told Reuters through an interview, “over-the-air updates are paramount.” “This functionality needs to be there. If you can’t do it, you will lose ground,” Hilgenberg continued.
Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of cloud and artificial intelligence at Microsoft also told Reuters that the deal will allow users or drivers to experience autonomous driving closer with new capabilities updates over time. Upon the interview, Guthrie elaborated, “for our phones 15 or 20 years ago, when you bought it, it pretty much never changed. Now, we expected every week or every couple of days that, silently, there’s new features.” Guthrie further added, “that ability to start to program the vehicle in richer and richer ways, and in a safe way, transforms how the experience works.”
Read also: Hyundai Calls off Tie-Up with Apple
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