CARIAD IAA 2021: HOW WAS OUR FIRST-EVER AUTOMOTIVE SHOW?
This week, we’ve been exhibiting at the IAA Mobility 2021 – and what a week it’s been. Here, we take a look back at the past few days, full of inspiring speeches and insights about how we’re bringing the automotive experience to the next digital level.
At the start of the week, we held our very first official press conference. As an introduction to CARIAD, we let the world know who we are, what we stand for and what we’re striving to achieve. Not only did we look back on the milestones we’ve accomplished on our journey so far, but we also described our vision for future mobility and what we’re doing right now to turn that into a reality.
The conference was an excellent opportunity for us to bring together not only Dirk Hilgenberg (CEO of CARIAD) and Herbert Diess (CEO of the Volkswagen Group), but also the respective Board Members for Technical Development of the Audi, Porsche and Volkswagen brands, Oliver Hoffmann, Michael Steiner and Thomas Ulbrich. In doing so, we highlighted the strong collaboration across the company and CARIAD’s role of consolidating the Group’s tech expertise.
One unified software platform, the value of data, over-the-air updates, and much more
A huge part of our activity at the IAA Mobility this week was our series of expert talks. These 30-minute sessions provided a deep dive into our products, solutions and the overall CARIAD Experience.
> Alexis Trolin (Head of Solution Train E3 2.0 Architecture) gave us an insight into CARIAD’s unified software and hardware platform. He told the story of how the leading figures at brands set out to disentangle the variety of software architectures across the Volkswagen Group and, with CARIAD at the helm, bring them together under one unified platform. He then explained the customer benefits of this platform and the endless car experiences it will create in future.
> Michael Wintergerst (Executive Vice President, Head of Vehicle & Cloud Platform) elaborated on Alexis’ points and explained to us the new cross-brand operating system, VW.OS, and automotive cloud, VW.AC, which will keep the car of the future continuously connected and updated. Together, these two halves will empower the new digital ecosystem of the Volkswagen Group.
For this unified software and technology platform to work, data-based software development is key. We learned from Knut Krösche (Senior Vice President, Digital Business & Mobility Services) about the value of mobility data and its vast potential to create numerous customer experiences. Knut emphasised the importance of sharing data and touched upon the role that CARIAD’s Big Loop play here. By gathering feedback from the world’s largest fleet of vehicles on an ongoing basis, we can better improve on our solutions.
In a similar vein, Jan Zawadzki (Head of Artificial Intelligence) talked about data as a strategic asset for CARIAD. We’re tackling both the challenges and opportunities of AI, creating an intelligent way to collect and work with data, and turning the cars of the future into intelligent data collection devices.
Florian Bouché (Interim Lead of ADAS & AD) presented CARIAD’s strategy towards higher levels of autonomy. Our ambition is to be able to rely on the car in the same way that we can rely on our senses. In the future, your car will be your chauffeur, with the ability to park itself, anticipate your wishes, and enhance safety and security.
And finally, Riclef Schmidt-Clausen (Head of Intelligent Cockpit & Body) explained the impact of software on the user experience in the mobility of tomorrow. We learned about the benefits of the Volkswagen Group’s One.Infotainment system, which will help to turn the driver of today into the passenger of tomorrow.
A chance to showcase the exciting career opportunities at CARIAD
In addition to our technical presentations, our booth at the IAA Mobility acted as a hub to learn more about us as company, and how you can become a part of CARIAD and transform automotive mobility with us. Our HR colleagues welcomed digital talent to the stand, answering questions and explaining more about the benefits of life and work at CARIAD. In addition, our Head of Recruiting Strategy, Franziska Funke, gave us all an interesting insight into what it’s like to work at the Volkswagen Group’s software powerhouse.
A stunning, interactive booth
And how could we look back on our first IAA without mentioning our stunning booth? As well as an eye-catching design, it featured a cinema-style screen, an interactive floor and plenty of welcoming spaces to talk tech with our experts at CARIAD.
In addition to the physical booth in Munich, we also set up a digital twin stand – a virtual replica of the real thing. Anyone that couldn’t make it to the IAA Mobility in person was able to explore our stand online and from home, as if they were there themselves. Virtual visitors could watch and re-stream all talks online – over the course of the show, more than 7,000 people watched our live streams.
We’re extremely pleased with our presence at IAA Mobility 2021 and were delighted to welcome such a large and engaged crowd to our booth throughout the event. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be reliving the individual presentations by our tech experts – stay tuned!
