Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

Volkswagen Software, an Indian executive parachuted in from Silicon Valley: Sanjay Lal (Sanjaral).

Although the name may seem strange, he is a real veteran in software. He has been a Google Automotive Engineering Director and Tesla Engineering Director for more than 26 years. Now he is the Vice President of Rivian, the new force of car building in the United States, and is in charge of the software department.

As for why he was poached, the reason is straightforward: Volkswagen's software problems are burning, and I hope the new leader will put out the fire.

CARIAD CEO: the appointment of urgently needed experts was announced personally by CARIAD CEO Peter Bosch (Peter Bosch).

It is reported that Sanjaral will be in charge of CARIAD's new software design center, Software Defined Vehicle Hub, which will start next month. The center will first develop software platforms for Volkswagen and Audi models, followed by other brands, and lay the foundation for Volkswagen's ultimate platform, E3 2.0.

Peter Bosch said:

Sanjay is something to look forward to for everyone, and he is a true expert in the field of software-defined cars. Together with him, we will help Volkswagen enhance its competitive advantage.

What do you rely on to improve your competitive advantage? Speed.

Sanjaral's primary goal is only one: the shorter the time it takes to develop software, the better. This is also Volkswagen CEO Oliver Bloom once stressed: to maintain competitiveness, speed is a top priority.

From this point of view, it is difficult for Sanjaral to come to Volkswagen.

Who's Sanjaral? Sanjaral is known as the "real expert on software-defined cars" and is indeed experienced in the software industry. Both undergraduate and master degree students studied at the University of Toronto, Canada, and received a bachelor's degree in computer engineering in 1995 and a master's degree in electrical and electronic engineering and communications engineering in 1997.

In addition to a good degree, Sanjaral has a glittering resume:

Joined Nokia Bell Laboratories in 1997 and became a technology developer

In 1999, he joined Liebo Communications (later acquired by Ericsson) as head of system software technology.

Joined Force10 in 2003 (later acquired by Dell) as a software architect for the operating system

In 2004, he joined P.A. Semi (later acquired by Apple) as a senior engineer

In 2005, Kyma Systems was co-founded with others to provide customized system-level software solutions with features: "shortening the development time of software projects"

Joined Cisco as Engineering Director in 2015

In 2017, Tesla was appointed as Engineering Director.

Joined Google in 2019 as the project director of Google's Android automotive operating system.

In 2021, he joined Rivian as vice president, leading the development of software platform, responsible for infotainment system, etc.

In addition, Sanjelar has two invention patents, namely, methods and devices for maintaining data consistency, and methods and devices for handling exceptions in a multiprocessor environment.

As for the level of ability, for example, in a recent job, Rivian's infotainment system, led by Sanjral, has been updated about once a month and has received a lot of praise.

Some car owners even commented that Rivian's infotainment system is even easier to use than CarPlay.

With excellent technical skills and rich experience, it is not difficult to understand that the public chose to poach Sangerar at this time. Volkswagen hopes Sanjaral will help CARIAD get back on its feet.

Volkswagen CARIAD: looking forward to the rebirth of the last time CARIAD stood in the forefront of the wind and waves, or in May when the company executives came to a big change.

Three of the four members of the board left. CEO Dirk Hilgenberg, Chief Technology Officer Lynn Longo and Chief Financial Officer Thomas Sedran were all removed, while only Chief personnel Officer Rainer Zugeh ö r remained.

Peter Bosch, Director of Bentley, became the new CEO of CARIAD, with Thomas G ü nther, former Senior Vice President of Power and Energy of CARIAD, as Chief launch Officer (Chief Launch Officer); and Andr é Stoffels, former first Vice President of Finance implementation of FAW-Volkswagen, became the new CFO.

After the personnel change, CARIAD also ushered in a comprehensive adjustment, mainly including:

Organizational restructuring of CARIAD

Accelerate the landing of E3 platform

Focus on the development needs of "software-defined vehicles" at the organizational level

Strengthen technical cooperation with strong science and technology enterprises

A new leadership and team model.

This adjustment is equivalent to a direct confirmation that Volkswagen is really dissatisfied with the speed of software development before CARIAD.

After all, the E3 1.2 platform, which is supposed to be released this year, is still under development, and the release of the E3 2.0 platform has been postponed from 2025 to 2029.

This directly affects the progress of new models, and the model planning of Volkswagen's high-end brands is in chaos.

The launch date of models such as Porsche's pure electric Macan and Audi's Q6 e-tron has not been fixed, and Bentley had planned to transform into an all-electric car brand in 2030, but there is no clear timetable.

The dissatisfaction of Volkswagen's board of directors eventually led to a comprehensive adjustment of CARIAD this year. And in the future, the new CEO Peter Bosch also made it clear that CARIAD will set up an integrated project team with Audi and other Volkswagen brands to jointly develop the next generation of software-defined cars.

Now, there is a good chance that the integrated project team is the newly established software design center, and Sanjaral is the new leader of the center.

At this point, Volkswagen's future strategy is also very clear, "walking on two legs":

One is cooperation, setting up a subsidiary with Horizon, taking a stake in Xiaopeng Motor, and starting a "joint venture" cooperation with SAIC for electric vehicles.

The other is self-research, taking on new executives and poaching new leaders to try their best to catch up with the lessons of the "software-defined car" era.

However, China has entered the era of "AI defining cars", and there is not much time left for the public.

Reference link:

Https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-10-02/vw-hires-ex-tesla-rivian-manager-sanjay-lal-to-bolster-ev-software-push

Https://insideevs.com/news/689505/vw-hires-rivian-tesla-vet-software-problems/

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