VW will design its own chips for self-driving cars

Volkswagen won't settle for off-the-shelf computing power with its self-driving cars. As Reuters (via Autoblog) reports, company chief Herbert Diess told Handelsblatt in an interview that VW will design its own high-performance chips for autonomous vehicles. It was a matter of eking out the best possible hardware, Diess said -- much like Apple and Tesla, the move would give VW "higher competence" in defining its processors. The automaker wouldn't build the chips themselves, but did want to own patents. The company's software division, Cariad, would expand to develop relevant expertise.