Now the digital car future begins

"With Cariad, VW, the Wolfsburg-based company, want to make the difficult leap into the digital age. No other European car manufacturer uses such high resources for this as VW. For good reason, because it is by no means a matter of course that the hoped-for huge sales with software services end up in the manufacturers' coffers : If the car becomes a computer on wheels, it will offer financially strong technology companies such as Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Baidu and Huawei the opportunity to get started in car production. The domestic car companies would have to be careful that they do not become an "extended workbench" for foreign tech companies, in the spring even German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned. The proud German carmakers would then only be allowed to deliver the mobile metal boxes for the high-tech mobility from Asia and America. "This is a real scenario. We take it very seriously," says Cariad manager Krösche. 

The industry is particularly afraid of the Apple car, which has been the subject of speculation for years would be a direct competitor for the German premium manufacturers. In order to be able to keep up, the car manufacturers must therefore also become software forges within a few years. They are looking for allies for this in the tech industry: Daimler is cooperating with the chip manufacturer Nvidia, Volkswagen and Ford have invested in Argo AI, a specialist in automated driving who is working on digital technology for robot taxis. VW wants to start a commercial driving service in Hamburg as early as 2025. General Motors, in turn, has taken over the start-up Cruise. 

But the measure of all things is still Tesla. Mercedes may be ahead with its autopilot at the IAA, but overall Elon Musk's company is considered a tech leader. 

“Tesla is three to five years ahead of traditional manufacturers when it comes to digitization,” estimates UBS auto analyst Patrick Hummel. 

This is one of the reasons why Tesla is currently worth more than twice as much on the stock market as BMW, Daimler and VW put together, at a good 620 billion euros: Investors see the company not as an industrial company, but as a technology group with an affiliated car factory. "Tesla will be the first automaker to earn more money with software than with cars," predicts Hummel. It could be so far in a few years. That sounds pretty wild, but at least Tesla customers are already prepared to pay astonishing sums of money for software services. The company has been offering its customers an electronic driver assistance system by subscription since the summer and charges an impressive 199 dollars a month for it, although its capabilities are still far from truly automated driving. UBS estimates that every seventh Tesla customer in the western world has ordered the pseudo-autopilot. 

At the Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg, too, they are working on new business models that are only made possible by digital technology: things like car batteries, the storage capacity of which users can temporarily expand using a smartphone app. Or the digital autopilot, which can be booked as required. The part-time computer chauffeur should become a reality in five years. VW has announced the "Project Trinity" for 2026: an electrically powered sedan that achieves "Level 4" of autonomous driving, ie has a significantly smarter autopilot than the Mercedes S-Class at the IAA this autumn. 

"The cost of automated driving could be between 7 and 10 euros per hour for customers," predicts Klaus Zellmer, Sales Director for the VW brand."