Where is the infotainment of the future headed, and why is this topic getting out of hand in the German car industry?

More and more electronics are moving into vehicles, screens are getting bigger, mechanical controls are disappearing, and hundreds of functions can be operated on the touch-sensitive monitor or with voice control.

Then there is the personalization: the car recognizes the driver along with their favorite music, their most frequent navigation destinations, preferred settings for the air conditioning and the seat massage.

Michael Spehr

Editor in the "Technology and Engine" department.

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Clever and reliable software is required here, but the German car manufacturers seem to be overwhelmed by this challenge.

4,500 employees work at Volkswagen in the Cariad software division, and the problems are so great that even the VW supervisory board is now getting involved.

400 additional IT staff are to be hired.

While most Volkswagens are currently running software version E 1.1, the developers have been working on an operating system 2.0 since 2020, which has been postponed to 2026.

Meanwhile, Audi and Porsche are pulling the emergency brake and relying on an intermediate version 1.2.

It's not quite as modern, but reliable and available.

Porsche's CFO Lutz Meschke recently told this newspaper that one can no longer do all the complex tasks alone.

You can also hear a bang from BMW.

If the manufacturer had decidedly refused to support Google's Android Automotive at the end of 2020, the company is now initiating a U-turn.

From 2023 onwards, Android Automotive will be the substructure for the in-house BMW OS 8 in some models in addition to Linux.

The customer will always see the BMW interface.

Nevertheless, this is another triumph for Google, because the American group has already achieved that two well-known car manufacturers completely give up their self-developed infotainment systems and switch to Android Automotive: From now on, Volvo only uses Google technology, the in-house Sensus is dead , and Ford ditches its sync to also switch to Google.

The driver increasingly has a choice: either use the vehicle manufacturer's on-board system or start Carplay.

The iPhone is connected wired or wirelessly, but must be in the vehicle.

Android Automotive, on the other hand, does not require a smartphone; you create a Google account for the car or use an existing one.

The systems from Apple and Google have one thing in common: the convenience of not having to set up anything new in the vehicle, because the entire personal digital world from the smartphone account is immediately available in the vehicle.

The next appointment in the calendar is recognized by Carplay and immediately suggested as a navigation destination.

The podcasts you have subscribed to can be continued exactly where you paused with your smartphone, and if your partner drives the car, he will immediately find his personal digital world again after switching to his account.