The blockbuster $5 billion deal between Volkswagen Group and Rivian is simply days outdated. However it seems, VW Group was tapping into Rivian’s software program experience months earlier than the partnership was introduced.
VW Group’s struggling software program arm Cariad has employed not less than 23 of the startup’s prime staff over the previous a number of months, a TechCrunch overview of LinkedIn knowledge reveals. Cariad’s chief software program officer, chief product safety officer, two of its vice presidents and two principal engineers have all been employed from Rivian. Practically the entire different hires got here from senior software program roles at Rivian, lots of them this 12 months.
The hires pre-date any deal between VW and Rivian. The three way partnership, which might enable the German big to leverage Rivian’s software program and electrical structure chops, continues to be being fashioned. The JV isn’t anticipated to be formalized till the fourth quarter — a element that VW and Rivian spokespeople identified.
Nonetheless, the wave of recent hires illustrates VW’s — and, extra particularly, Cariad’s — need to faucet software program expertise. And people early hires may show fruitful because the three way partnership comes collectively.
The hires have bolstered Cariad’s effort to construct up a Silicon Valley outpost in Mountain View known as the SDV Hub — an acronym that offers a nod to the so-called software-defined automobile that each automaker is chasing. The SDV hub is floor zero for Cariad’s next-generation software program structure generally known as “software program 2.0.”
In fall 2023, Cariad employed Sanjay Lal, who most just lately led the event of Rivian’s infotainment and next-gen middleware throughout the automobile and cloud, to steer the institution of the SDV hub. The main focus of the engineers on the SDV hub in California — in addition to some German-based employees below Lal — is on the software program 2.0 structure that’s presupposed to be an working system designed for all VW Group manufacturers.
The hub’s focus suggests those self same staff may very well be a part of the eventual VW-Rivian three way partnership. It must be famous that each Rivian and VW spokespeople stated that hypothesis was untimely.
“We’re initially focusing collectively on the graceful start-up of our three way partnership with Rivian, and can touch upon every part else at a later time,” an emailed assertion from VW reads.
Whereas Cariad has greater than 7,000 staff worldwide, its footprint in North America is far smaller. The SDV hub at the moment has round 230 staff, based on LinkedIn. Meaning current Rivian expats now make up round 10% of Cariad’s worker base within the area.
These hires come as Cariad is in the midst of restructuring after years of struggles. Created in 2020, Cariad was supposed to hurry up growth of superior software program and electrical structure for Volkswagen Group’s large push into EVs. As Cariad grew in dimension, its issues compounded. Its software program 1.2 platform, which was being developed for Audi and Porsche vehicles, was initially scheduled for completion in 2022. The fixed delays and different inside issues led to a number of govt shakeups and is taken into account one of many causes VW Group CEO Herbert Diess was dismissed in 2022.
Cariad, now below the path of Peter Bosch, has efficiently accomplished the 1.2 software program structure that will likely be within the upcoming Porsche Macan EV. However it’s the two.0 structure that’s meant to catapult the entire group’s manufacturers in the identical sphere as Tesla.
Tapping expertise from the likes of Rivian bucks how Cariad was constructing out its North American workforce during the last two years. Previous to the previous couple of months, most Cariad staff within the area got here from different locations contained in the Volkswagen Group, from automotive or software program suppliers. Far fewer got here from tech corporations, like Cariad’s director of software program engineering, who spent virtually a decade at Google.
VW and Cariad are usually not the one ones trying to startups like Rivian to construct out expertise. Ford’s personal secretive low-cost EV venture has been snapping up employees from Rivian, Tesla, Lucid Motors and even Apple’s disbanded Undertaking Titan, as TechCrunch first reported earlier this month.