Soon after Volkswagen announced that the Mk8.5 Golf has an infotainment system with support for the ChatGPT AI system, the carmaker opened a dedicated artificial intelligence lab that will serve as a “globally networked competence center and incubator” for next-gen technologies.
VW’s AI Lab will look to identify new product ideas related to artificial intelligence throughout the world and develop concepts alongside various partners throughout North America, Europe, and China. The company sees considerable potential in things like AI-optimized charging cycles for electric vehicles, predictive maintenance, and the ability to network vehicles with infrastructure including the homes of customers. It also wants to grow high-performance speech recognition and services that will connect a user’s digital environment with their vehicle.
All brands within the VW Group are set to benefit from the AI Lab and the digital prototypes that it develops.
“We want to offer our customers genuine added value with artificial intelligence. We aim to link external digital ecosystems with the vehicle, creating an even better product experience,” VW chief executive Oliver Blume said. “Collaboration with technology companies is crucially important for us. In future, we intend to simplify cooperation in organizational and cultural terms.”
The AI Lab will include a Supervisory Board assembled with members of the Boards of Management of the VW, Audi, and Porsche brands. Serving as the chief executive will be Carsten Helbing while Carmen Schmidt will serve as CLO and CBO.
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While it is unclear when the AI Lab will be ready to launch new products and technologies into VW Group vehicles, the carmaker says it is already engaging in exploratory talks on its first products with unspecified “international tech companies.”
“With our new ‘AI Lab’, we are combining technological expertise, flexibility and speed in collaboration with external partners,” added VW and Porsche board member Michael Steiner. “This will be crucial in the highly dynamic AI sector. We will pursue highly promising initiatives in the marketplace, together with partners where this is necessary, irrespective of existing arrangements and other links in series production.”
