The company was established in 2020 as Car.Software Organisation. Today, around 5,000 engineers and developers are now working at CARIAD to build a uniform software and technology platform for all Volkswagen Group brands, which includes a unified operating system, a unified E/E architecture and an automotive cloud. In addition, the company is developing digital functions for vehicles, including ADAS, highly automated driving functions, a standardized infotainment platform, software functions for linking powertrains, and chassis and charging technology, as well as new ecosystems and digital business models in and around the vehicle.
CARIAD is the answer to the changing demands of customers. These customers are demanding more comfort, more safety, more sustainability and more connectivity. With its scalable software and technology platform, CARIAD is developing the technological basis to turn the car into a smart companion: a vehicle that will accompany customers into the future, with continuous updates providing new digital functions even years later.
In addition to developing function updates over the lifetime of vehicles based on the MEB modular electric drive platform, CARIAD is working intensively on the software and technology platform for the Premium Platform Electric (PPE). The first vehicles built on this platform will enter the market as of 2023. The core element at CARIAD is the development of the unified and scalable software and technology platform E³ 2.0 for all Group brands. E³ stands for ‘end-to-end electronics architecture’. CARIAD has built the software and technology platform from scratch and already proved its performance capability with a minimum viable product (MVP). It will be used for the first time in Artemis, Audi's lighthouse project. Starting in 2026, E³ 2.0 will be scaled by the Volkswagen brand with Trinity in the volume segment.
CARIAD’s corporate headquarters are in Germany, with competence centers in Wolfsburg, Ingolstadt, the Stuttgart region, Berlin and Munich. CARIAD also works closely with Volkswagen’s development teams in Seattle, Silicon Valley and China, and is already establishing its own sites there.
More information on CARIAD can be found at cariad.technology.