Daimler plans to open a new software campus in Germany and add 1,000 software developers to work on its new MBOS operating system for electric vehicles.
The campus will be based at Daimler's S-Class factory in Sindelfingen near the automaker's Stuttgart global headquarters.
The center will help Daimler to take on Tesla and resist encroachment by Silicon Valley tech giants into the auto industry.
It is aimed at making the automaker independent of the major software giants and will secure the future viability of the Sindelfingen site, said Ergun Luemali, the works council boss at the site.
Management and employee representatives are working together to create working conditions similar to those in agile IT companies "while guaranteeing compliance with employee rights," Luemali told Automobilwoche.
Daimler sees its own operating system as a key advantage to survive in the future competition among car manufacturers.
"With this system, Mercedes-Benz has central control of all vehicle domains and thus interfaces with the customer, who is always at the center of everything we do," Mercedes Chief Technical Officer Sajjad Khan told Automobilwoche.
"Developing our own software will enable faster and more regular updates," Khan said.
MBOS is scheduled for market launch in 2024.
According to information from Automobilwoche sources, MBOS will be used for the first time on the new "electric-first" Mercedes Modular Architecture (MMA) platform, which underpin future compact and midsize electric cars. The next A Class is expected to be the first car equipped with the system.
In addition to the Sindelfingen site, Daimler also operates digital hubs in Berlin, Tel Aviv, Seattle, and Beijing.
The hiring in Germany is part of a broader drive to recruit 3,000 programmers worldwide.
