Volkswagen to design its own chips for autonomous vehicles

Automotive giant Volkswagen is planning to design its own chips for autonomous vehicles, according to a report in German newspaper, Handelsblatt.

VW’s CEO, Herbert Diess, is said to have “ordered” the company to “launch the next revolution after electromobility”, and Handelsblatt says that Diess “wants to create the fully networked and self-steering vehicle with its own processor”.

Diess told Handelsblatt: “To achieve optimal performance in light of the high demands that exist for cars, software and hardware have to come out of one hand.”

VW, as a company says that, in the future, cars will be “smartphones on four wheels” – like the company’s new ID Crozz or the ID Buzz, which will have a purely electric drive systems. They will be fully connected and always online.

Meanwhile, the number of control devices, electronic components and assistants in cars is set to grow rapidly.

Semiconductors are the basis for electronic systems in cars and pave the way for technological innovations.

A Golf already has more than 50 control devices equipped with up to 70 semiconductors.

Last year, 982,495 Golfs rolled off production lines around the world. They already have more than 3.4 billion semiconductors on board – and this number is increasing.

VW has been partnering with Infineon, a chipmaker whose processors are the majority of cars on the road, so any developments in VW’s self-sufficiency in chips may grow out of that relationship.

Main image: Inside VW’s chip factory in Dresden, Germany.