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Forget the smartphone or the smartwatch. The next frontier in tech-enabled objects is the smartcar.
At least that’s how the Volkswagen Group’s latest announcement would make it seem. The automotive giant said on Wednesday that it’s gearing up to release an in-car app store available across its brands, from Volkswagen to Audi to Porsche. That means you’ll soon be able to log into Yelp or TikTok from the comfort of the driver’s seat.
“It’s a new level of digital experiences we want to show,” Dirk Hilgenberg, the CEO of Cariad, the VW Group’s in-house software division, said on a call with The Verge. “We can combine and leverage with [third-party app companies] creating an immersive experience, especially as far as gaming, relaxing is concerned.”
The apps available in VW Group cars will be quite varied, spanning music, podcasts, video conferencing, weather, gaming, news and more. They will all be optimized for in-car use and designed to run from an infotainment system screen. The app store will first become available in a suite of Audis this summer (the A4/A5, Q5, A6/A7, A8, Q8 e-tron and e-tron GT in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe). More Audi models will follow later in the year, with additional brands like Volkswagen, Porsche, Lamborghini and Bentley added after that.
An in-car app store across VW Group vehicles is interesting for a couple of reasons, The Verge noted. One, it’s going to be accessible on internal-combustion cars like the Audi A4 and Q5, rather than existing only on electric vehicles, for which services like these will probably become standard. Two, the VW Group has struggled in the past with its software. In fact, software-related issues contributed in part to the ousting of the group’s former CEO.
However, figuring out its software problems will be a big part of the VW Group’s push into electric and connected vehicles. (It’s hoping to be the world leader in EV production, beating out companies like Tesla and BYD, The Verge said.) Future EVs will need to rely on successful software for everything from charging to automated driving, and the new software powering the app store will be a good test for these features.
Unfortunately, the app store won’t be available on existing VW Group models via over-the-air updates. So if you’re someone who just has to have the latest tech, you might also be needing a new car.
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