“Internet of things” solutions firm Aeris Communications Inc. today teamed up with Volkswagen Group of America to form Ventic LLC, a new joint venture to develop connected vehicle platform technologies.

The joint venture, 51% owned by VW and 49% owned by Aeris, will focus on developing technology for Volkswagen vehicles in North America starting with the launch of “Car-Net,” a next-generation connectivity platform in VW vehicles later this year.

The platform manages connectivity on a single platform while also preserving the ability to deploy solutions based on region or vehicle model, according to VW. Having a single platform is key to delivering improved service flexibility and speed along with operational efficiency and improved customer experience, it added.

“Our connectivity platform expands beyond remote services and vehicle safety and security,” Abdallah Shanti, global chief information officer at Volkswagen and member of the Ventic board said in a statement. “This platform has inherent flexibility which enables new business models through third-party integration and is foundational for vehicle-to-everything communications.”

Alongside the joint venture announcement, Aeris announced its new Mobility Suite. It’s designed to enable automotive original equipment manufacturers to deploy connected vehicle programs in a fraction of the time of existing suites.

The suite offers a cloud-agnostic IoT product suite built to help automotive manufacturers. The Suite is claimed to offer best-in-class, modular software components needed to rapidly deploy new connected vehicle programs globally and upgrade existing software infrastructure to improve customer engagement and retention — all at a lower cost.

The modularity of the suite down to the component level is keyl, enabling automakers to take a highly customized approach to each customer’s specific requirements. “The Aeris Mobility Suite enables car companies to immediately deliver on their vision to expand from ‘making and selling cars’ to offering a constantly evolving array of innovative and engaging subscription-based transportation experiences that work seamlessly in the real world,” noted Raj Kanaya, chief marketing officer and general manager of automotive at Aeris.

Photo: VW