While they are surely no leading innovators in deep learning saying they are not tech companies is a bit ridiculous, as they innovate in many areas of technology. Sure, VW and Daimler don’t produce their own chips (as far as I’m aware) as they rely on partners like Bosch to do it for them. Bosch sensors and ICs are found in many devices btw (even iPhones I think). So I’d argue there’s plenty of innovation here, just nothing that is very visible for most folks in “tech”. Btw Tesla’s cars use electronic and mechanical parts from around 40 different German suppliers if I remember correctly.
They absolutely design their own chips, typically the precise details are outsourced. But they are actively developing chips from MCUs (motor control units) up to simple things like seat heating sensors. At the moment they have pushed the German government to invest billions in German made inference accelerators for cars, to not be solely dependent on foreign chips by NVIDIA and Intel for that.
