Bosch currently ships four million automotive sensors per day and with 1/3 of all Bosch engineers designing software this German company will be big players in the car of the future as manufacturers transition from hardware production to software and hardware production.
Volkmar Denner, Chairman of Bosch, used CES 2016 to announce his vision for the car of the future.
Bosch sensors are working hard in your car monitoring functions such as acceleration, braking, sound, temperature and active features such as adaptive cruise and lane departure warning. Soon these sensors will use the data obtained from the driving community to create a “connected horizon” where real time maps of dangers, problems and congestion are shared. This will allow drivers to choose the best path to their destination. While improving efficiency, systems such as this will result in improvements to safety, further blurring the line between active and passive safety systems.
Bosch’s concept of “Connected Mobility” allows for optimised and predictive route planning, real time parking maps and improved connectivity between all transport systems.
Denver also announced the availability of a retrofit “E-Call System”. Similar to systems employed in high end models this system can be fitted to any car and relies on sensors which determine the severity of a crash before automatically alerting emergency services.
Additionally, Bosch released a cloud based “Wrong Way Driver Alert”. This system monitors when a driver has taken a wrong turn that may present a danger such as a freeway environment. With this system not only is the offending driver alerted to their mistake but so too are other motorists.
Denver predicts that automated driving will arrive in stages. Bosch will release automated valet parking by 2018 and by 2020 freeway automation will arrive. To achieve reliability with automated driving functions Bosch has been working closely with Tom Tom for the extremely detailed maps that are needed for automation.
The final major announcement by Bosch concerns connected mobility. With distraction accounting for 10% of crashes on US roads Bosch is striving to achieve connected mobility in a safe way. Bosch hopes that this will be achieved by using a combination of gesture, eye movement and voice controls to operate various functions while driving. Additionally, a new touch screen has been created that while functioning like a regular screen now incorporates a tactile button sensation for the user. Strangely, this function has already been invented – it’s a button. Nevertheless, Bosch promises increased vehicle safety.
EFTM’s coverage of CES 2016 is made possible with support from Intel, Hisense, Sony, Samsung, LG and Alcatel One Touch
