Huawei Asks Mercedes, Audi to Collab on Software

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

Chinese smartphone giant Huawei has apparently broached the topic of software collaboration with a pair of German automotive companies. According to reports, Huawei wants to bust out of the situation in which it finds itself partnered on such projects solely with brands in China.


Per Reuters, the company – notably the target of American sanctions for the last five years or so – has held preliminary talks with Merc in an effort to place them at the helm of somewhere between 3 and 5 percent of Huawei’s Intelligent Automotive Solution (IAS) business unit. Talking heads value the joint at around $30 billion, making even a five percent stake worth over a billion dollars. Ze Germans seemed to have rebuffed the offer, citing a desire to remain in charge of its own software destiny instead of sloughing it off to a supplier.


Audi’s involvement is less clear, though it is worth noting there are rumblings of them and Huawei planning a partnership to develop new autonomous driving aids. However, anything which springs forth from that joint venture will apparently be installed only on Audi models sold in the Chinese market, where the company is tangled up with the FAW Group home team. Remember, the latter is a state-owned automobile manufacturer in a market where outside companies must forge some sort of partnership with a local outfit in order to get off the ground – at least in terms of car. GM is partnered with a group called SAIC for the same reason. Audi currently makes 9 different models in China, ranging from the A3 and Q2L to the A6L and e-tron.


Predictably, everyone involved has clammed up and there are precisely no official statements from either Merc or Audi – or Huawei, for that matter – about this potential collab. What's you take? Should car companies shack up with tech giants in order to produce legible infotainment systems and the like? Or should they go it alone?


[Image: Huawei]


Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by  subscribing to our newsletter.

Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

More by Matthew Guy

Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 15 comments
  • IBx1 IBx1 on Dec 12, 2023

    Give me a DIN format radio I can rip out without affecting HVAC controls or the trip meter.

    • See 1 previous
    • Art_Vandelay Art_Vandelay on Dec 12, 2023

      You can complain all you want, but that ship has sailed. screens are the thing now. best you can hope for is a good UI


  • ToolGuy ToolGuy on Dec 12, 2023

    Speaking of software, why does the first reply to a comment get hidden a lot of the time? It makes it look like people are talking to themselves (which some of us are lol).

    The Truth About Comments 🙂

  • VoGhost If you want to really scare the TTAC commentariat, use a headline that combines China, EVs and TikTok. The horror!
  • TheEndlessEnigma Looking pretty dirty and worn inside for only 11,000 miles.
  • Add Lightness ...and I thought the Trump Towers were excessively pretentious.
  • Daniel Tons of discounts out there on the eGMP's, just pick your style: Ionic 5/6, Kia EV6 and Genesis GV60. Personally, I got $20k off on a $60k MSRP GT-Line EV6 (only $7500 of that was a "rebate" from the state, the rest was Kia and dealer discounts). They are not only the same platform, but nearly identical mechanically other than slightly adjusted wheelbases. Find this one ugly? Look at Ionic 5 or EV6 instead, it's actually pretty cool how they came up with 4 distinct styles with basically the same car to fit many different tastes.
  • Dave Holzman EVs will be ready for prime time when the chargers are dependable, and easy to use, when they can fill the battery in around 10-15 minutes, when there are sufficient numbers of them that people don't have to hang out for a half an hour waiting for a fast charger to be free, when chargers are widely available even in Nebraska, Wyoming, eastern Oregon, Nevada, Utah, the northern parts of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and within 10 miles of the start of the Tail of the Dragon, and when they get fixed pronto when they have problems.
Next