VW’s new Car.Software subsidiary is hoping the collaboration with Microsoft will accelerate the development of safe and comfortable mobility services, its chief executive Dirk Hilgenberg said in a statement.

Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of the Cloud and AI group at Microsoft, said the partnership promised to enhance the German carmaker’s “transformation as a software-driven mobility provider.”

Volkswagen and Microsoft have been collaborating since 2018 to develop a Cloud platform that would allow data to be exchanged between cars.

Microsoft is one of the few tech giants without its own automotive project.

Google’s Waymo and Apple are working on their own software to facilitate autonomous driving while Amazon has bought autonomous vehicle company Zoox.

Guthrie stressed that Microsoft did not want to compete with its customers, while adding that the group saw in the 1990s that companies who try to do everything at once are not successful.