Wouldn’t it be great if your car and in particular its software were as easy to use as your smartphone? If you could easily install apps and services whenever you wanted to? We show you that this is no longer a future vision.
The Slovenian vlogger and auto journalist Ciril Komotar was on the road for us and tested the new fully electric Volkswagen ID. 3 and especially its tires. Check out what his joyride came up with!
Attractive and convenient: today’s cars offer various electronic features that make our lives easier. Via voice- or touch-operated displays you can control most functions and decide what music you want to listen to or where you want to go. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t like these features and services?
But as convenient as these features are, they also require lots of computing power. So where does this come from?
Modern electronics transmit data at lightning-fast speeds and lay the foundation for autonomous driving.
To date, a number of different electronic control units have been needed in cars to power their different functions, such as the airbag, air conditioning system or mobile network connection. A single vehicle may have as many as 100 or more control units on board. In addition, modern mid-range cars contain over two kilometers of electronic wiring, which supplies the various systems with energy and allows them to communicate with one other. Crazy, right?
As cars develop and electromobility and autonomous driving become more and more common, the higher requirements of modern vehicles will be too much for the electronics of current models to handle. Autonomous driving in particular will generate huge volumes of data, and complexity will increase tremendously as vehicles become more connected.
The new Volkswagen ID.3 prototype is adapted to these requirements and is built on a totally new architecture. The car is equipped with two high-performance computers on board. One of them – the so called “electronic brain” of the ID.3 – is developed by Continental. Its role is to manage the various functions and data flows in the car, similar to a human brain. With a circuit board roughly the size of an A4 sheet of paper, the computer boasts data transmission speeds many times faster than standard wiring.
Power player: the circuit board is the centerpiece of the high-performance computer.
It is a great success for us that our server concept is now going into series production at Volkswagen. This is not just a new era in the development of complex electronic architectures, but a milestone in digital transformation.
- Helmut Matschi, Head of the Vehicle Networking and Information Business Area
Put simply: almost infinite flexibility. You can easily install the apps and services of your choice in the car, just as you would on a smartphone. Security loopholes can be remotely patched, and soon it will even be possible to install new driving functions without the car having to visit the workshop – everything will be done wirelessly via the mobile communications network or WiFi.
For you, this means the car stays up to date even years after it was purchased. High-performance computers also make costly product recalls due to software errors a thing of the past.
High computing power for fully electric and fully networked vehicles.
In addition to these electronic innovations on board, there are also special requirements regarding the tires of the ID.3 and its contact with the road. We are proud to also equip the ID.3 with our tires optimized for the all-electric car. They provide:
Our tires for the ID.3 are specially tailored to the individual properties of the vehicle and are easily recognizable by the Volkswagen ⊕ marking on the side wall. This sign proves that the tires have undergone various testing and deliver quality, comfort, performance and efficiency. This makes them an ideal fit for the ID.3. The EcoContact™ 6 summer tire and the WinterContact™ TS 850 P winter specialist have both been adapted to suit the specific requirements of the ID.3.
