VW Group's Troubled Cariad Software Division To Lay Off 2,000 Workers

According to Germany's Manager Magazin, Volkswagen's board has approved laying off 2,000 employees in the Cariad software unit as part of the latest restructuring intended to right the digital ship. Autoblog reports: Former group CEO Herbert Diess established Car.Software Organization in 2020, eventually renaming it Cariad and giving the task of creating 'a uniform software and technology platform for all Volkswagen Group brands.' VW's info page on the division says the unit employs roughly 6,000 people around the world, up from roughly 4,500 at the end of 2021. Despite that same page claiming Cariad is building 'the leading tech stack for the automotive industry,' the failed stacks brought down the division's first CEO in less than a year, then brought down VW Group CEO Diess two years later as problems continued. It then probably played a role in bringing down Audi brand CEO Markus Duesmann and much, if not all, of Audi's Project Trinity when Oliver Blume took over as CEO of the VW Group. It finally took out Cariad's second CEO, Dirk Hilgenberg, over the summer. And aside from the career killing, Cariad's woes have proved problematic for every battery-electric car VW Group launch since the ID.3.

Blume put ex-Bentley production manager Peter Bosch in charge in May. Since then, Bosch has been at work on a reorganization plan to get the software division running as it should so that the software runs as it should, and so that vital products like the Audi Q6 E-Tron and Porsche Macan EV can get out the door as envisioned. Manager Magazin reported that Bosch's plan involves laying off those 2,000 employees over the next 15 months, a step that would rewind back to 2021 staffing levels, but that action needs to be discussed with VW's Works Council as it concerns labor issues. As it awaits its v1.2 VW Group software, Porsche said it's going to move ahead with Google Built-In as an interim solution. More worryingly, Cariad's timetable was meant to have v2.0 out by 2025, when products like the electric Cayman and Boxster are expected, but v2.0 has been buried in favor of a redesign from scratch.

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