In a bid to achieve automated driving functions across all vehicle classes, the global technology company Bosch is collaborating with the Volkswagen Group subsidiary Cariad. Accordingly, both companies form an extensive partnership to make partially and highly automated driving suitable for volume production and thus available to the broad mass of consumers.
The guiding principle behind this partnership on equal terms is that one of the world’s biggest automaking groups plus one of the world’s biggest automotive suppliers equals a huge step forward in the development of automated driving.
For the vehicles sold under the Volkswagen Group brands, the alliance aims to make functions available to allow drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel temporarily. More specifically, these functions are Level-2 hands-free systems for urban, extra-urban, and freeway driving, as well as a system that takes over all driving functions on the freeway (SAE Level-3). The first of these functions is to be installed in 2023, the company said.
The two companies will jointly develop a state-of-the-art, standardised software platform for partially and highly automated driving. The aim is to use this platform in all privately operated vehicle classes sold under Volkswagen Group brands – and thus in one of the world’s biggest vehicle fleets. It will also be possible to integrate all the component parts developed by the alliance in other automakers’ vehicles and ecosystems.
Software and volume-production expertise
Dr Markus Heyn, Board of management member, Bosch, said, “For privately owned vehicles, progress to automated driving happens one step at a time. At Bosch, we’ve been working successfully on this for many years now. Together with Cariad, we will now be accelerating the market launch of partially and highly automated driving functions across all vehicle classes, and thus making them available for everyone. This will make driving on the roads safer and more relaxed. We will be able to offer the solutions we create to our other customers as well, and in this way set new standards.”
Dirk Hilgenberg, CEO, Cariad, said, “Automated driving is key to the future of our industry. With our cooperation, we’ll strengthen Germany’s reputation for innovativeness. Bosch and Cariad will further enhance their expertise in the development of pioneering technologies. This underscores our ambition to deliver the best possible solutions to our customers as soon as possible.”
Processing Info From Real Environment
At various locations belonging to the two companies, especially in Stuttgart and Ingolstadt, associates from the Bosch Cross-Domain Computing Solutions division and Cariad will develop partially and highly automated driving functions. Working in mixed, agile teams, they will be part of a global network. At peak times, it is expected that the various modules required by the project – from middleware to individual applications – will occupy more than 1,000 experts from the two companies. In addition, the two companies have already started recruiting fresh experts to work in the alliance.
The focus of the project’s work will be data-driven software development based on information from 360-degree surround sensing. For this purpose, a highly innovative development environment will be created to record, evaluate, and process data. The environment will also make use of AI methods. The idea behind this is a simple one. The more extensive the pool of data from real road traffic, the more robust and natural the design of the partially and highly automated driving functions can be. This applies, for example, to add layers for high-resolution maps for the localisation and lateral and longitudinal guidance of vehicles. The alliance will also be working on these layers. Moreover, it applies equally to everyday driving situations and to what are known as “corner cases” – the seldom occurring road-traffic incidents that are especially tricky for a system to resolve.
Real-time Information Processing
Dr Mathias Pillin, President, Bosch Cross-Domain Computing Solutions, said, “The best proving ground for the development of automated driving is road traffic. With the help of one of the world’s biggest connected vehicle fleets, we will gain access to a vast database. This will allow us to take automated driving systems to a new level. All our customers will be able to benefit from this.
Dr Ingo Stürmer, Alliance’s Project Director, Cariad, said, “Together, we can test automated driving functions on a broader scale in actual vehicles and implement them more quickly. Our engineering work will be done jointly, with Bosch and Cariad as one team. There has never been an alliance like this in the automotive industry.”
The partners have also agreed to examine the possibility of joint development targets and timelines on the fully automated driving path (SAE Level-4).