Volkswagen AG & Microsoft Partner for AI Project

Volkswagen AG advances towards self-driving cars with Microsoft cloud-computing tech

Feb 12, 2021

The German Automotive Group powerhouse, who owns brands such as Audi & Porsche amongst many others, has made a large stride towards automated driving (AD).
The Group's software company; Car.software Organisation, will work closely with Microsoft to create a cloud based Automated Driving Platform (ADP) - on Microsoft Azure.

The purpose of the partnership and use of the Cloud-based platform, is to accerelate development of automated driving for the passenger car market across all of the Group's brands.
An area of particular focus is Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), to improve safety for both drivers and pedestrians.

Volkswagen T-Cross SUV Dynamic

Building this technology requires high-level computing power to collect data from numerous variables such as: road and weather conditions, obstacle detection and driver behaviours. These sources need to be inputed for the training, simulation and validation of AD and through machine learning algorthims which advance themselves through billions of real and simulated miles driven - they can connect driving experience with the AD.

As we transform Volkswagen Group into a digital mobility provider, we are looking to continuously increase the efficiency of our software development. We are building the Automated Driving Platform with Microsoft to simplify our developers’ work through one scalable and data-based engineering environment. By combining our comprehensive expertise in the development of connected driving solutions with Microsoft’s cloud and software engineering know-how, we will accelerate the delivery of safe and comfortable mobility services

Dirk Hilgenberg, CEO of the Car.Software Organisation

This is the next evolution of our foundational work with the Volkswagen Group to enhance their transformation as a software-driven mobility provider. The power of Microsoft Azure and its compute, data and AI capabilities will enable Volkswagen to deliver secure and reliable automated driving solutions to their customers faster.

Scott Guthrie, executive vice president, Cloud + AI at Microsoft