Project Trinity to spearhead Volkswagens software-led transformation
Summary
The growing convergence between the auto and tech industries continues to see new players enter the domain traditionally held exclusively by the major automakers. First announced by VW brand boss Ralf Brandstaetter in January, Project Trinity will be a small and affordable electric vehicle built using a new type of highly automated production at VWs main plant in Wolfsburg, Germany. Brandstaetter in a Friday presentation said Project Trinity at launch will rank at “level 2+” on the SAE scale of self-driving capability, which means the vehicle will be able to function on its own in a wide range of areas but will still require monitoring from the driver at all times. Think of it as a form of artificial intelligence where a computer uses the gathered data from millions of vehicles to “learn” how to perform actions on its own, i.e. without the need to be explicitly programmed with pre-defined algorithms. To improve its proficiency in this area, the automaker in 2020 established the Car.Software division whose goal is to develop and maintain a company-specific operating system dubbed VW.OS, just like Apple with iOS and Google with Android.