Hi, Thomas. I would love to get your perspective
in terms of some of the changes that are happening in automotive more recently,
and also your view into the future of mobility.
Sanjay, the industry have been for 19 years now already.
That's a long time.
It's incredible how fast it changed.
When I started at Audi in the beginning of 2000,
the main innovation driver at that time were
the mechatronic systems in our car.
That was phase one.
Eventually, the software came in
and we started to interconnect every system in the car.
Of course, the next step was connecting the systems through a surround view with sensors.
We're starting right now to connect, step by step, the car to a cloud.
What is happening, actually, in my point of view,
is that the software is getting step by step more important
in the vehicle, in the vehicle itself.
Digital transformation is everywhere in automotive.
I would love to get your perspective in terms of
what does digital transformation mean for you
from a Volkswagen-Audi group standpoint.
I think it has many dimensions to talk about.
One of them, of course, is technology-wise,
which means in the first step
connecting this beautiful device called car
into the cloud,
offering a connection for different services.
Today we're used to having iPhones or different devices.
It's very important to understand
that this is not plug-and-play
because the car is a different device than an iPhone or a phone by itself,
as we have very, very high demands on
security and safety.
I think also, digital transformation is enabling
different customer features in the car
today, as the software came step by step into the car
and reconnected the car in different features and different activators.
We enabled so many new features that ten years ago we didn't even think about it.
There's a third part of digital transformation,
which is probably the most difficult one.
When you talk about the organization.
We were used to develop systems and release them
for a seven-year period of time in production process in front of the customer.
We were used to have development cycles of four years before we come to series production.
If you come from the other side, what is happening,
what the IT industry and the software industry is used to, is complete different.
You have very short development cycles,
very short deployment and update cycles.
This is something that is very unusual for us.
Our processes and the way that we work
and the way that we act internally
is actually not well prepared
to get that part of the equation solved so far.
How important is partnering with different stakeholders for you in general
and in particular in the autonomous space?
Partnering for us is very critical.
If you consider our heritage,
which is more mechanical and mechatronical-driven,
and you consider the new industry, let's say the software industry and the IT industry,
combining both of these industries together by partnering
is, in my opinion, the fastest and best way
to make out of 1 + 1 three.
So really to generate a benefit for both parties.
Thomas, you mentioned that partner is critical for Audi.
What are the characteristics that you would like to see in a partner?
Also, how critical are the different types of partners?
The hardware providers, software partners,
specifically from an autonomous standpoint?
We have of course our own thoughts
on what we want to generate on solutions for our customers.
So having the flexibility to understand the customer need
and trying to tailor something
that could be something standard, but kind of specific
for Audi, is very important for us.
The second thing, of course, is competence.
If you bring up a very good team,
with the right competence,
and you perceive that they match also on a cultural view
and on a common goal with the team from Audi.
This is where from my perspective makes really fun
to see the team generating results
on almost a day-by-day basis.
The third thing is
to talk about a longtime relationship.
I think,
in the past, especially the automotive industry was also very keen on, you know,
having partners for one generation and then changing to the next
and on a very competitive price level to really go for the best bid.
I think in future this will not happen and will not work anymore
because the technical complexity is already that high
that if you don't have a stability in the partnership
and in the relationship with the partners
this will not work out.
So, strong partnership, in a nutshell,
it's about competence,
it's about long-lasting partnership
and, of course, having a good strategic fit
and what we develop togehter and a common goal.
Thanks, Thomas, for joining us today and sharing your perspectives.
It's really fascinating. I learned a lot
and looking forward to seeing the progress Audi is going to drive in this industry
and all the transformation that is lying ahead for us in mobility.