Consortium

The Vergölst car repair brand is available to motorists at more than 450 locations throughout Germany with high-quality products and car services. Customers can always rely on quality and competence – for more than 90 years. This makes Vergölst one of the oldest tyre dealers in Germany. Since 1926, the brand has stood for tyre and car services, and has been a subsidiary of Continental AG since 1974. Today, more than 1,900 employees in the workshops, in the field service, and in the head office ensure the mobility of motorists as well as of small and large car and truck fleets. As part of the Car Repair 4.0 project, Vergölst will feed and supplement the artificial intelligence with the measurement data from error diagnoses and their causes from everyday car repair shop life.

Auto-Intern GmbH (AI) is a leading manufacturer of PC-based hardware for electronic vehicle diagnostics. Since its foundation in 2001, AI’s vision has been to provide both professional car repair shops and the interested private individual with the most efficient diagnostic tools for error analysis. The product range, grown by our own development and manufacturing teams, includes: Diagnostic adapters for automotive onboard and offboard diagnostics, diagnostic software, and other metrology accessories. AI is driving the development of even more powerful and innovative products and technologies for the future. In the context of this project, AI will contribute both the diagnostic systems already developed in the preliminary project and the expertise to develop these further and manufacture them in large quantities.

The LMIS AG has been accompanying customers and partners on their way to digital success for many years. Its unique approach, in comparison with some other software development companies, is that the entire software lifecycle from concept to implementation to own hosting in Osnabrück (under German security and data protection standards), as well as operation is covered. As a Gaia-X member and implementation and AI partner in the current project “Agri-Gaia: An agribusiness AI ecosystem”, LMIS brings its Gaia-X expertise to the table and covers the role in the project not only as a platform developer, but also as an AI developer. In the subsequent utilisation of the platform, LMIS will operate the (decentralised) Car Repair 4.0 platform and act as an AI developer on the platform itself.

DEKRA is one of the world’s leading expert service providers, with offerings ranging from vehicle inspections and appraisals to claims settlement, industrial and construction inspection, safety consulting, testing and certification of products and systems, to training services and temporary employment. With a total turnover of more than Euro 3.4 billion and over 44,000 employees in around 60 countries, DEKRA is a globally active company that sees itself as the global partner for a safe world. As part of the project, DEKRA will contribute its 150 test locations throughout Germany and the network of car repair shops in which tests are carried out and will disseminate the results through its own organisation and in the network during and after the project period.

eco – Association of the Internet Industry: With over 1,100 member companies, eco is the largest association of the Internet industry in Europe. Since 1995, eco has played a decisive role in shaping the Internet, promoting new technologies, shaping framework conditions and representing the interests of its members in politics and in international bodies. The reliability and strengthening of the digital infrastructure, IT security and trust, as well as ethically oriented digitalisation are the focal points of the association’s work. eco is committed to a free, technology-neutral and high-performance Internet. Tasks within the project: Networking activities and maintaining contact with member companies or interested AI/IT providers, possible participation in the Car Repair 4.0 platform after the project has run its course.

The Georg Agricola University of Applied Sciences (THGA) is a private, state-recognised and publicly refinanced university of applied sciences of the non-profit DMT-Gesellschaft für Lehre und Bildung mbH. For more than 200 years, the THGA has stood for practical engineering education. With its PRO LAB Product and Manufacturing, the university works in the fields of product development, production management and their interaction. Research expertise: A human-driven and data-driven process design of the industrial manufacturing system with a particular focus on SMEs. The THGA supports the project with its expertise in the field of engineering – from product development and design to equipment and process design along the entire product life cycle. 

The German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence GmbH (DFKI) was founded in 1988 as a non-profit public-private partnership (PPP). It is Germany’s leading business-oriented research institution in the field of innovative software technologies based on artificial intelligence methods. In nineteen research areas and research groups, eight competence centres, and eight living labs, product functions, prototypes and patentable solutions are developed in the field of ICT technology. Funding is provided by public national and international funding agencies. DFKI will support the project during and after the project duration with its AI know-how. It participates through the spin-off program, where further start-ups can emerge in the context of the Car Repair 4.0 platform.

Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences is the largest and most performant university for applied sciences in the German state of Lower Saxony. With 14,000 students in four faculties and the Institute of Music, the university is located in Osnabrück and Lingen. Professor Stefan Stiene’s research group is involved in the Car Repair 4.0 project. There, researchers are working with partners to develop an AI infrastructure based on the Gaia-X enabling technology. This involves integrating the edge devices in the car repair shops into a central AI platform that performs the inference of the models and provides the respective services. The focus will be on identity and data management as well as deployment.