Volkswagen and Aeris form joint venture for connected-car technology
Ventic will handle connected-car platforms and focus on VW-branded cars in North America.
Future car tech from VW? That'll come from Ventic.
Volkswagen has teamed up with Aeris, the company devoted to all things related to, well, the "internet of things." The partnership gave birth to a new joint venture the two have named Ventic.
Ventic will be responsible for VW's next-generation Car-Net system, scheduled for deployment in most 2020 model year cars from the brand, the company announced today. Beyond that, the German automaker said the joint venture gives it a "customizable" approach to connected-car technology.
Housing everything inside Ventic will allow the company to tailor technology to certain vehicle models, or regions. All the while, even with differences, everything will remain a single Ventic-built technology platform.
"This platform has inherent flexibility, which enables new business models through third-party integration and is foundational for vehicle-to-everything communications," VW Chief Information Officer Abdallah Shanti said in a statement.
As mentioned with reference to V2X technology, the platform will also support other future-forward capabilities. For example, the future Car-Net system will allow users to change access rules. It's important if VW every dives into car sharing and other mobility services in a big way. Car-Net will be the brains behind it all.
On the day-to-day side of things, Ventic's work will bear a snappier user interface with the next-generation of Car-Net. There's also built-in cloud support. At the end of this long road we call connected-car tech, VW foresees a day where the car is always online -- truly a computer on wheels to serve drivers as more than just simple transportation.
