VW Group invested $ 5 billion in Californian EV and software company Rivian last year
Audi launches its first cars with a Rivian-Developed software chapel in 2028, so that a step -by -step change is marked in the way it develops its cars and the functions they take on.
The Volkswagen ID 1launch in 2027, will be the first VW group production car that use Rivian elements, but Audi will be the first brand of the group that brings a car to the market with a complete software architecture developed in collaboration with the Californian outfit, with which VWG has set up a software joint venture Last year.
That is because “Audi has the highest requirements when it comes to functionality,” said CEO Gernot Döllner – Plus, the increased efficiency and reduced complexity that is brought by the new technology, will match the urge of the German brand for clearer and simpler activities.
“It is 2028 where we will see it on the market. We are working heavily with the Joint Venture Rivian-Volkswagen, builds up mules and collaborate intensively, so the first cars are already on the road,” Döllner told Autocar.
He revealed that the technology will be introduced in a few completely new cars “If you take such a step, you do it in a new platform”-which occupy different market segments.
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“From there we will roll out the step by step of these two models to the entire line-up.”
Döllner did not give any indications about what these first two models will be, but the company will probably launch its first car on the new ‘SSP’ architecture of the VW Group around 2028, so that seems like a likely candidate for the new software pivotel.
He added that the stack will have important implications for the production and possibilities of Audi models of the next generation.
“For us, first of all, it means reducing complexity. When developing the car we will have much slimmer and faster processes in the way we develop the car.
“Updates about the air are an integral part of that strategy, so we are more flexible to add functionality or to resolve things that may be imperfect, and it also helps us to concentrate our organization: that software-defined architecture also brings complexity reduction.”
Audi’s development of a new software -defined family of vehicles comes when it is its focus on traditional physical checks in the pursuit of greater usability – as demonstrated by the new Concept C Show Car.
The two approaches seem to be at odds with each other, but Döllner said that digital and analog elements “fit together perfectly”.
“You have fewer virtual buttons in the car and more haptic elements, because that is definitely the customer requirement that we get from the market: customers want specific functions and direct access. And it gives us the opportunity to bring materiality back to the interior of the car – that real metal feeling, the ‘Audi click’, including emotion.
“But under it is a central computer unit with zonal computers behind, so that is not a contradiction – it fits together.”
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