admin Recent reports suggest that the German auto maker, Volkswagen’s Car Software Organization is partnering with Microsoft to ideate a cloud-based automated driving platform (ADP) on the Microsoft Azure. They will then be leveraging its computational and data capabilities to deliver automated driving experiences even faster at global scale.
Aim for the Development of the Platform
The rationale for this collaborative endeavor is to boost the efficacy of Volkswagen’s car software. With its ADP running on Azure, VW says it will be able to increase the efficiency of the development of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and AD functions for passenger cars across Volkswagen Group brands. Previously, the two companies have already collaborated as strategic partners on the Volkswagen Automotive Cloud, since 2018.
Dirk Hilgenberg, CEO of the Car.Software Organisation, propounded, “As we transform Volkswagen Group into a digital mobility provider, we are looking to continuously increase the efficiency of our software development. We are building the Automated Driving Platform with Microsoft to simplify our developers’ work through one scalable and data-based engineering environment. By combining our comprehensive expertise in the development of connected driving solutions with Microsoft’s cloud and software engineering know-how, we will accelerate the delivery of safe and comfortable mobility services.” Scott Guthrie, the Executive Vice President of Cloud and AI at Microsoft stated, “This is the next evolution of our foundational work with the Volkswagen Group to enhance their transformation as a software-driven mobility provider. The power of Microsoft Azure and its compute, data and AI capabilities will enable Volkswagen to deliver secure and reliable automated driving solutions to their customers faster.”
Collaborating to Create the Best
Building AD and ADAS solutions requires large-scale computational capabilities, Volkswagen noted. A mammoth volume of data from road and weather conditions to obstacle detection and driver behavior needs to be managed every day for the training, simulation and validation of AD functions. Machine learning algorithms that learn from billions of real and simulated miles driven are key to connected driving experiences. Thus, creating a reliable platform with some of the best in the field is inevitably critical. Volkswagen hopes that ADP will help reduce the development cycles from months to weeks and efficiently manage the huge amount of data. Both collaborators will start working on the operation immediately to finish the product as soon as possible.
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