|
The German automaker said on Thursday it was working on a new
software operating system, to be known as "vw.OS", which will be
introduced in VW brand electric cars from 2020 onwards.
These new vehicles will have a completely new electronic
architecture designed to help facilitate autonomous driving
functions, VW said in a statement.
Rather than having around 70 different sensors and controllers
operating independently within each vehicle, the new cars will
connect the various sensors using the new proprietary software
operating system.
This way, information gathered by a parking sensor could be
linked to the steering, brakes, and high-definition maps to
allow a car to park itself once an onboard camera spots a free
parking space.
VW said it was easier to do over-the-air software updates for
cars if the operating system was designed in-house, rather than
depending on third-party software supplied by the different
vendors providing various sensors.
VW said it expects to generate around 1 billion euros in sales
by 2025 from offering new digital services including
car-sharing, parking and parcel delivery services.
The digital push includes embedding smartphone applications like
"We Park" into car infotainment systems and connecting vehicles
with vendors like Amazon that can use an app to open cars so
they can be used as delivery locations, VW said.
Volkswagen also said it would launch a car-sharing business,
called "We Share", in Berlin using a fleet of 2,000 electric
cars in the second quarter of 2019.
The We Share service will expand in core European markets as
well as selected cities in the United States and Canada, the
carmaker said.
(Reporting by Edward Taylor; Editing by Douglas Busvine, Mark
Potter and Jan Harvey)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |
|
