Volkswagen's Audi will take a stringent line on guarding customers' data, the carmaker's chief executive said on Tuesday, in a thinly veiled swipe at new rival Google.

The emergence of self-driving and connected cars has made software a key component in future cars, opening the market to new entrants like Google, and shaking up the pecking order between carmakers and their suppliers.

Software-driven cars also throw up new questions about who should control data generated by connected cars and drivers, forcing companies to take a clear stance on data privacy.

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'A car is one's second living room today,' Audi Chief Executive Rupert Stadler said on Tuesday at a business event in Berlin attended by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt. 'That's private.'

'A car is one's second living room today,' Audi Chief Executive Rupert Stadler said on Tuesday at a business event in Berlin attended by Google Chairman Eric Schmidt.

'That's private.

'The only person who needs access to the data onboard is the customer,' Stadler said, adding Audi 'takes that seriously.'

Information about the location and speed of a car could be attractive to advertisers, insurance and communications companies who could use the data for their own commercial purposes.

Germany's auto industry has lobbied regulators to take a restrictive line on data privacy, a step which could make it harder for software and telecom companies to establish a data-driven business case in the auto sector.

'The customer wants to be at the focus, and does not want to be exploited,' said Stadler.

'The Internet, cookies and other data collectors are almost common courtesy.'

APPLE ATTACKS GOOGLE OVER PRIVACY Apple CEO Tim Cook recently launched a blistering attack on the firm's rivals, accusing them of 'gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetize it'. Honored for 'corporate leadership' during EPIC's Champions of Freedom event in Washington. Cook spoke remotely to the crowd. 'Like many of you, we at Apple reject the idea that our customers should have to make tradeoffs between privacy and security,' Cook said. 'I'm speaking to you from Silicon Valley, where some of the most prominent and successful companies have built their businesses by lulling their customers into complacency about their personal information,' said Cook. 'They're gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetize it. We think that's wrong. And it's not the kind of company that Apple wants to be.' Advertisement

Speaking at the same event, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said the Internet technology company wants 'essential' German expertise to realize its European automobile projects.

The California-based company has worked with Audi, Adam Opel AG and Volkswagen AG in an 'Automobile Alliance' for about a year, Schmidt said.

The remarks of the CEO of VW's flagship division echo a similar stance on privacy taken by rival Daimler which has, like Audi, developed an autonomous car.

As part of their own push into software and autonomous cars, Audi, Daimler's Mercedes and BMW, together with private equity firm General Atlantic, are jointly bidding for Nokia's mapping unit HERE, sources told Reuters last month.