One of the hottest topics in the industry a couple of years ago, automated driving kind of moved to the back seat, as more important and unpredictable events shook the world. But this doesn’t mean efforts to create a society where cars can drive and park themselves, aside from assisting drivers, are no longer being made.
Back in the summer of 2019, one of the biggest car companies on the market, Volkswagen, announced it would no longer rely on external partners for the software that governs its cars, and created the Car.Software unit. Tasked with the creation of the so-called vw.os operating system and the integration of the Volkswagen Automotive Cloud in all the vehicles the carmaker sells, it is also responsible for developing driver assistance systems “up to automated driving and parking.”
These systems rely on a variety of hardware and software solutions to work properly. To have an even bigger independence in how it develops these tools, Volkswagen announced this week it is purchasing the front camera software business area from Hella, one of the major German car parts suppliers.
“By acquiring the camera software business area of HELLA together with the relevant image processing know-how, we are continuing our strategy of developing key software components in-house in the future. This way, we will boost the development of competence in the field of computer vision within the Car.Software Org and strengthen our position for the development of safe and innovative driving functions,” said in a statement Dirk Hilgenberg, CEO of the Car.Software Org.
The deal should be finalized at the beginning of next year, and will see half of the employees of this division of Hella moving to VW. The Car.Software unit intends to have 5,000 software engineers on its payroll by the middle of the decade – it is then when all the cars of the VW group should be running on the same software platform.
These systems rely on a variety of hardware and software solutions to work properly. To have an even bigger independence in how it develops these tools, Volkswagen announced this week it is purchasing the front camera software business area from Hella, one of the major German car parts suppliers.
“By acquiring the camera software business area of HELLA together with the relevant image processing know-how, we are continuing our strategy of developing key software components in-house in the future. This way, we will boost the development of competence in the field of computer vision within the Car.Software Org and strengthen our position for the development of safe and innovative driving functions,” said in a statement Dirk Hilgenberg, CEO of the Car.Software Org.
The deal should be finalized at the beginning of next year, and will see half of the employees of this division of Hella moving to VW. The Car.Software unit intends to have 5,000 software engineers on its payroll by the middle of the decade – it is then when all the cars of the VW group should be running on the same software platform.
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