BERLIN — Mercedes-Benz’s chief know-how officer, Sajjad Khan, will depart the model to arrange a know-how venture-capital fund, the corporate mentioned in a press release.

Khan, who’s leaving at his personal request, will depart on Sept. 1.

The automaker mentioned Khan’s substitute, Magnus Östberg, would assume general duty for the MB.OS automobile working system as chief software program officer, efficient Sept. 1.

Khan, an Automotive Information Europe 2019 Eurostar, was accountable for the automaker’s CASE (Linked, Autonomous, Sharing/Providers, Electrical) group. He was additionally the main pressure behind the corporate’s MBUX person interface software program and closely concerned within the growth of the flagship Mercedes EQS sedan’s hyperscreen touchscreen.

“Sajjad Khan has decisively superior digitization at Mercedes-Benz and considerably formed the product portfolio,” Daimler Supervisory Board Chairman Bernd Pischetsrieder mentioned within the assertion. “With MBUX, he has created a system that defines a brand new benchmark within the automotive sector.”

From 2011 to 2015, Khan labored for BMW, the place he in the end turned vice chairman, accountable for the Linked Drive system worldwide. He took over the duty for digital automobile & mobility as vice chairman at Daimler in 2015, beginning as CTO of CASE in 2017.

Östberg started his profession within the automotive trade at software program and technical consulting firm Mecel, adopted by administration positions at Delphi in Germany and america with a give attention to automobile software program, infotainment and telematics.

Most lately, the Swedish-born govt was vice chairman software program platform & system at provider Aptiv within the US.

“With MB.OS, we made a transparent strategic choice for the way forward for Mercedes-Benz: to use our personal software-platform for our automobiles, for which we are actually creating a selected software program place to deliver collectively the duty for all associated growth duties,” Daimler CEO Ola Kaellenius mentioned within the assertion.

“Magnus Östberg is excellently suited to this job and I’m very a lot trying ahead to working with him.”

Mercedes additionally introduced R&D actions can be re-aligned as a part of the electric-only evolution of the corporate and introduced collectively within the division of Markus Schäfer, chief working officer Mercedes and Daimler administration board member for group analysis.

Khan’s sudden departure was greeted as a shock inside the enterprise press, with the German commerce publication Handlesblatt calling Khan a “trailblazer” and noting his sudden departure comes within the midst of an enormous restructuring.

Kaellenius’ assertion acknowledged Khan laid the foundations for MB.OS together with his “technological experience, strategic farsightedness and a very good group,” and famous Mercedes would function an angel investor on his new enterprise.