Better buckle up: Volkswagen puts Microsoft in driver's seat to deliver 'automated' platform
- Reference: 1613063529
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/02/11/volkswagen_microsoft_automated_driving/
- Source link:
The German car maker's relationship with Microsoft is not new. In 2018 it [1]said it would create a "new automotive cloud" on Azure that was focused on driver services including media, connection with home and office, and predictive maintenance.
[2]
VW is not fully hooked into Azure: in March 2019 it signed a multi-year contract with AWS to run the "Volkswagen Industrial Cloud", which is all about manufacturing processes and logistics, and includes IoT services and AWS Outposts on-premises.
The [3]new agreement remains focused on driving rather than manufacturing, but now extends to an "Automated Driving Platform" – though the extent to which this includes fully driverless vehicles is unclear. There is reference to "advanced driver assistance systems" as well as automated driving so this will be an incremental process towards automated driving rather than the creation of new driverless vehicles.
[4]
[5]
Volkswagen's Automated Driving Platform will be built on Microsoft Azure
Automated driving is all about AI and data, and the release states that "petabytes of data from road and weather conditions to obstacle detection and driver behaviour need to be managed every day for the training, simulation and validation of AD functions." This data will come via "real traffic data from the group's vehicles" so that now a person's vehicle as well as their smartphone will be recording every move – potential buyers may want to check the privacy policy before purchase.
The automotive platform will be developed by Car.Software, a company within the Volkswagen Group. According to today's release, Car.Software has ambitious plans: It is building a new software platform "which includes a unified architecture, an operating system and automotive cloud" to come into use at the end of 2024. The automated driving elements are only part of this solution, with other features including software to link powertrains, chassis and charging technology, as well as "new ecosystems and digital business models." We are not sure what new business models are envisaged, but no doubt marketing folk would love to communicate with drivers during those long hours behind (or possibly beside) the wheel as they do everywhere else.
There are risks inherent both in applying AI to safety-critical activities like driving, and in hooking up devices we depend on to cloud services that may on occasion experience an outage: cloud doorbells [6]not working is annoying but the consequences of a similar outage for automated driving may be more severe.
Volkswagen's news is better for Microsoft than that from Ford, which earlier this month [7]named Google Cloud as its "preferred cloud provider" and said that "beginning in 2023 millions of future Ford and Lincoln vehicles at all price points will be powered by Android, with Google apps and services built-in."
Buyers are advised to check the privacy policy there as well, but also note that Ford built the first two versions of its in-car computer system, Ford Sync, using Windows Embedded Automotive, based on Windows CE, and announced by Bill Gates in [8]his CES keynote in 2007.
Even after Sync failed, Ford and Microsoft [9]announced in 2015 "the creation of the cloud-based Ford Service Delivery Network, powered by Microsoft Azure."
[10]
Microsoft's cloud and AI chief, Scott Guthrie, will have been happier with the Volkswagen commitment, and promised that the Azure deal will enable "Volkswagen to deliver secure and reliable automated driving solutions." ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2018/10/01/volkswagen_microsoft_azure/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/cloud&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YCW3BxF1qyYvAYbn5J8OVwAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://news.microsoft.com/2021/02/10/volkswagen-group-teams-up-with-microsoft-to-accelerate-the-development-of-automated-driving/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/cloud&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YCW3BxF1qyYvAYbn5J8OVwAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/02/11/vw-microsoft.jpg
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/03/amazon_ring_outage/
[7] https://cloud.google.com/press-releases/2021/0201/ford-and-google-partnership
[8] https://news.microsoft.com/2007/01/07/bill-gates-robbie-bach-2007-international-consumer-electronics-show-ces/
[9] https://web.archive.org/web/20150521105712/http://blogs.microsoft.com/business-matters/2015/03/17/ford-develops-new-service-delivery-network-for-its-vehicles-powered-by-microsoft-azure/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_datacentre/cloud&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YCW3BxF1qyYvAYbn5J8OVwAAAEA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: VW. Not.
Would you rather have Google? Between the two I'd pick Microsoft's cloud, because they don't have their fingers in nearly as many data pies as Google does, and are generally more incompetent so if they tried to misuse my data they'd probably screw it up.
Re: Microsoft
"...generally more incompetent so if they tried to misuse my data they'd probably screw it up.
LOL! That, my friend, will go down as a classic line.
Re: Microsoft
But it'll probably stop in the middle of the M1 to do an update and reboot.
Re: VW. Not.
Google or Azure? This isn't about your advertising preferences, but putting your and others lives in the hands of that incompetent AI / Cloud provider.
Re: VW. Not.
As far as I'm concerned that's both VW and Ford off the list if I ever buy another car. However what I've got might well see my driving days out.
Re: ANY of them. Not.
I don't care who is building the car or who is writing the software, automated driving is anathema to me.
Ultimately, a car's sensors may catch some things that I wouldn't but, at the same time, I will catch other things that they don't. So give me warnings but don't assume that you don't need my eyeballs.
I don't buy a car to binge watch Netflix while it drives me to my destination and parks.
Cloud based driving...
I would hope that the cloudy bit is "additional learning" and maybe "distribution of upgrades" with the actual driving not needing any connection...
[1]obligatory
[1] https://m.xkcd.com/1897/
So will be now need to press the "Start" button
to stop VW Beetles?
Re: So will be now need to press the "Start" button
Updating Volkswagon
don't turn off your car
1 % .........
Re: So will be now need to press the "Start" button
My wife's key-less car has a button that both starts and stops it.
At what point
will it become necessary to close all the windows and restart the engine to proceed?
Bork right into a hedge.
Automotive Clippy
"It looks like you're going to the beach(*). Would you like me to drive you there?"
Drives over Beachy Head.
(*) Post lockdown of course.
Re: Automotive Clippy
Not Beachy Head, but ....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-56017248
Nobody was in the car!
Re: Automotive Clippy
"Nobody was in the car!"
More's thee pity - it had been stolen.
Re: Automotive Clippy
"Drives over Beachy Head."
That is what's known as driving over the Edge!
Morris Marina
come back, all is forgiven.
Re: Morris Marina
Not entirely. It was while doing a brake adjustment on a Marina estate that I first put my back out & it's been affecting me for about 40 years.
"potential buyers may want to check the privacy policy before purchase"
Checking the privacy policy before purchase may not help too much unless it just drives a decision to buy or not to buy. Our [1]just published privacy policy research found that they commonly require you to agree in advance to any changes that may be made in the future. It's illegal under the GDPR, but that doesn't stop organisations doing it, and once you've made the purchase you're stuffed as the complaints process is hard and you're quite unlikely to have an individual complaint taken seriously by the regulators.
[1] http://businessinforisk.co.uk/library/Awful_not_Lawful-final-BiR.pdf
I drive a Toyota
We don’t need no stinking AI, we use rubber bands and gaijins from Texas and Mississippi? And maybe some Koreans. Banzai!
Now the blue screen of death
will finally get its true meaning.
There
looks like there is an obstruction in your lane, would you like clippy to help you? please answer before continuing to drive.
Sorry, Microsoft, but
for at least three months of our Canadian winter, aunt Mary will be way better than any Microsoft algorithm.
VW. Not.
I have previously owned a VW, and was extremely happy with it. But like Mitsubishi (I had the misfortune of owning 2, pretty much both 'halo' cars in their class at that), they are now off my shopping list.
Between the dud 2.0t, their absolutely stupid-level U.S. pricing (a $42,000 Golf R hatchback with an (admittedly powerful) turbo 2-litre? Are you guys CRAZY??!!), and Dieselgate...
You. Are. Done.