Software development within the vast Volkswagen Group is now under the control of Audi, the automaker’s mainstream luxury brand.
The change is being made because of the problems plaguing the next-generation operating system in the eighth-generation Golf and electric ID.3 hatch.
Reports indicate early builds of the ID.3 will miss out on its full complement of software features, with missing items to be delivered to owners later via an over-the-air update.
Eighth-generation Volkswagen Golf interior
In order to “facilitate the enormous acceleration of development processes” so the VW.OS operating system has a “full range of functions”, Audi will take control of the Car.Software organisation and raise its staffing figures to 5000 by the end of year — original plans had called for that number to be reached by 2025.
Developed in-house, VW.OS aims to tie together the various systems running discrete functions within a car, and give the German giant a shot at catching up to Tesla’s software suite.
The operating system will be used across new models being developed by all of Volkswagen’s brands.
The Volkswagen Group has put Markus Duesmann in charge of software development throughout the automaker. He will do this duty in addition to his role as Audi’s CEO, and head of research and development.
Audi A8 interior
As part of this latest reorganisation, Christian Senger, the current head of the Car.Software division, has been replaced by Dirk Hilgenberg, who was most recently head of manufacturing engineering at BMW.
Car.Software’s headquarters will also move from Volkswagen’s head office in Wolfsburg to Audi’s HQ in Ingolstadt.
