Volkswagen Group has hired a former Tesla engineering director to bolster the German automaker's ailing software push.
Sanjay Lal will join next month from Rivian Automotive to help develop VW Group's next-generation software platform, the company said Monday. Lal worked as director engineering at Tesla for two years until mid-2019 before joining Google's Android Automotive project.
Lal will head a software design hub at VW's Cariad unit to roll out a new software platform for Volkswagen's future electric models. The hub's output will first be applied to two vehicle projects for the Audi and VW brands but then form the basis for scaling the software architecture across the group's portfolio of automakers.
CEO Oliver Blume has been taking steps to tackle the problems holding the automaker back from being competitive in the fast-changing EV landscape. They include clumsy software development, inefficiencies at VW brand and waning sales in China.
