Photo: original image by autoevolution
German industrial giant Volkswagen has just announced it's newly founded Infotainment GmbH division has bought a development facility belonging troubled smartphone maker Blackberry.
The R&D factory is located in Bochum, a city in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany. Ironically, it's also the sight of an Opel factory, which GM has decided to close at the cost of a whopping $866 million (635 million euros). From here, Volkswagen's engineers will start development of future infotainment systems and will improve vehicle connectivity.
"Connectivity will be a key feature of the car of the future. Many customers are expecting connected vehicles of a new dimension in terms of convenience and road safety," said VW development executive Dr. Heinz-Jakob Neusser. "In order to be able to meet these challenges it is necessary for us to broaden and expand our options through additional know-how."
Volkswagen is already part of the Open Automotive Alliance, which hopes to bring Android into our cars in the near future. However, the German company has not yet announced if it will also integrate Apple's CarPlay technology.
Troubled smartphone maker Blackberry has reported a net loss of $5.9 billion () for the financial year ending in March. Their once very popular devices have lost a lot of ground to the latest smartphones from Samsung and Apple. On unsold Z10 smartphones alone, they reported losses of $934 million.
"Connectivity will be a key feature of the car of the future. Many customers are expecting connected vehicles of a new dimension in terms of convenience and road safety," said VW development executive Dr. Heinz-Jakob Neusser. "In order to be able to meet these challenges it is necessary for us to broaden and expand our options through additional know-how."
Volkswagen is already part of the Open Automotive Alliance, which hopes to bring Android into our cars in the near future. However, the German company has not yet announced if it will also integrate Apple's CarPlay technology.
Troubled smartphone maker Blackberry has reported a net loss of $5.9 billion () for the financial year ending in March. Their once very popular devices have lost a lot of ground to the latest smartphones from Samsung and Apple. On unsold Z10 smartphones alone, they reported losses of $934 million.
Google News