SUNNYVALE/STUTTGART (dpa-AFX) - Automaker Mercedes-Benz is counting on big business opportunities for its planned proprietary car software. By the end of the decade, software-driven sales in the group are expected to multiply to a high single-digit billion euro amount, the company said Wednesday at a presentation on its new "MB.OS" software operating system in Sunnyvale, California. In 2022, Mercedes reportedly made revenues of more than one billion euros from services and products related to navigation, traffic information and online updates of road maps. At the same time, management believes it is well on its way to exceeding its target of one billion euros in earnings before interest and taxes from digital services by the middle of the decade.

From 2025, the comprehensive "MB.OS" car software is to be used in the new "MMA" vehicle platform. This year, the new E-Class is already expected to provide a glimpse of the upcoming software functions with a precursor. With the new system, Mercedes wants to network all data areas in the car, from entertainment to automated driving, comfort and ride functions to charging and energy management. This involves functions that can be added both at the time of purchase from the factory and at a later date, paid for either as a one-off or by subscription.

The company spends between one and two billion euros a year on developing the software system. By the middle of the decade, spending on software should account for 25 percent of the research and development budget. However, management is sticking to its medium-term goal of reducing investment in the Group as a whole.

Mercedes wants to keep the strings in its own hands with the new car operating system and offer selected partners an open interface. For driver assistance systems, the Swabians already have the U.S. specialists from Nvidia on board as suppliers of chips and software. A new addition is digital giant Google, whose location-based services, maps and live traffic information are to be offered to Mercedes customers seamlessly integrated. In the important Chinese market, the online giant Tencent, among others, is making its way into Mercedes cars with media content and cloud technology for automated driving. Mercedes has further cooperations in its quiver, for example for games or video conferencing from the providers Zoom and Webex from Cisco.

More and more car companies are daring to link concrete financial targets with their software ambitions. According to earlier statements, BMW has set its sights on a sales potential of around five billion euros for digitally bookable software in 2030. U.S. automaker General Motors (GM) aims to generate up to $25 billion (23.4 billion euros) in software by the end of the decade. Opel parent Stellantis is talking about 20 billion euros by then.

With its partners, Mercedes is bringing companies on board, some of which are earning a good share of the proceeds. Mercedes finance chief Harald Wilhelm acknowledged in Wednesday's presentation that Nvidia will get about half of the proceeds from the jointly developed automated driving system. That part of the software is expected to account for the largest share of software revenue by the end of the decade. Group CEO Ola Källenius said in a conference call that the partnerships would help Mercedes achieve its medium-term financial goals.

The executive admitted in a Q&A session with analysts that equipping every car in the future with a "supercomputer" and many sensors without knowing in advance what customers will use of them is a "bet." "But that's a bet we want to make," Källenius said. For one thing, Mercedes is getting the hardware at a discount. On the other, he said, it's also an incentive for customers to also use existing functions and pay for them./men/mis/he