BARCELONA/WOLFSBURG (dpa-AFX) – Volkswagen (Volkswagen (VW) vz) is building a joint app store for various car brands in the group. The platform is set to make its debut in Audi cars produced from July. Other brands are to follow. At the start there are currently around 40 apps, as VW (Volkswagen (VW) vz) announced on Wednesday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. These include music services such as Spotify, Tidal and Amazon Music as well as the video app Tiktok, ARD, ZDF and the recommendation app Yelp.
So far, Volkswagen customers have been able to place apps on their car screens, primarily from smartphones via Apple’s Carplay and Google’s Android Auto. Applications that run directly on the infotainment system could, among other things, be better connected to the vehicle functions, argues VW. The individual brands decide which apps come onto the platform. The car industry competes with Carplay and Android Auto for the interface to the user.
Volkswagen’s software division Cariad uses the app store solution from hi-fi manufacturer and automotive supplier Harman, which is based on Google’s Android Automotive. VW vehicles need an additional hardware component for Android because the infotainment systems have so far run with the Linux operating system. The component is to be installed in the Audis from July. As it is absent from previous vehicles, the app platform will not be available on them. The hardware should have enough computing capacity to cover the lifetime of the car.
Harman’s platform solution, called Ignite, is only intended for Android apps designed for the automotive version of the Google (Alphabet C (ex Google)) operating system. Only selected app categories are permitted for this – applications for messaging, audio, navigation and video when parking, among other things. There are currently a few dozen apps, some of which are aimed at individual countries.
So if Apple wanted to bring an app to the VW platform, the iPhone manufacturer would have to develop an Android automotive version of its applications. However, the group’s vehicles will continue to support the Carplay solution, in which you connect your iPhone. BMW and Mercedes-Benz (Mercedes-Benz Group (ex-Daimler)) also use Android Automotive for their app platforms, but in cooperation with the French Harman competitor Forvia.
Existing subscriptions such as for Spotify can be used on the Volkswagen platform after registration, but no new purchases can be made in the car. If this is added later, the brands should share in the revenue. In-house offers such as functional extensions will later also be available via the platform.
An app like Yelp, in which you can choose a restaurant, hands over the navigation to the on-board map software. This takes the battery level into account when navigating in electric cars, for example./so/DP/jha
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