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Bosch is shaping the CO₂-free future: climate-friendly and attractive solutions  ...

06.09.2021

Presentations

Business/economy

Bosch is shaping the CO₂-free future: climate-friendly and attractive solutions ...

Dr. Volkmar Denner, chairman of the board of management, Robert Bosch GmbH, and Dr. Stefan Hartung, chairman of the Mobility Solutions business sector, at the IAA Mobility press conference in Munich, September 6, 2021 Check against delivery. Ladies and gentlemen, This year’s IAA comes at a time when the automotive industry is facing a challenge on three fronts. To put it briefly, these are the Covid crisis, chip scarcity, and the path to CO₂-free mobility. In this challenging environment, we are holding our own and seizing our opportunities. Together with our customers and suppliers, we are doing all we can to overcome the chip shortages, not least by ramping up our new wafer fab in Dresden. The sales revenue of our Mobility Solutions business sector will grow nearly 10 percent this year. We are a technology leader, and this means business success. This is the foundation that will get us through the next steps in the transformation of mobility successfully. We are not just following this change, but shaping it side by side with our customers. And this is why we are growing – above all in the areas that will shape our future. In 2021, we will grow more than 40 percent with systems and sensors for driver assistance. Our electromobility sales will expand twice as fast as the market. This year, they will already exceed 1 billion euros, and by 2025 they will come to some 5 billion euros. Electromobility will become a core business for Bosch, and CO₂-free mobility a growth area. We are turning challenges into opportunities – that’s how we do things at Bosch. In this context, we see ourselves as a proactive company that shapes the future. We are innovation leaders, especially when it comes to the mammoth task of reducing greenhouse gases from road traffic. The success of our e-bike business shows how much we are capable of – and this in a market that is currently expanding rapidly. In Europe alone, growth is 35 percent. Our innovations have helped e-bikes achieve a breakthrough. Our first e-bike drive debuted in 2011, and was followed in 2014 by the first cycle computer to feature integrated GPS, and in 2018 by the first e-bike ABS. Innovative strength can create new markets. Our aim is to shape the mass mobility of the future. In the future as well, therefore, there will not be any car without a bit of Bosch in it. A 55 percent reduction in the CO₂ emissions from new vehicles by 2030, and 100 percent by 2035 – we will go along with these ambitious targets set by the EU Commission. The mobility of the future must be climate-friendly, but it also has to be affordable and attractive. Only in this way will people and freight stay mobile in the future as well. The approach we take here is a technology-neutral one. What this means is that we have the right solution for every application, tailored to fit the respective policy requirements. No other company in our industry can match our broad diversification – from bicycle drives to construction machinery. We can therefore draw on all the technology we need to benefit from segment shifts in the market such as the current boost being given to electromobility in Europe. That said, there are still some unresolved questions as concerns the electrification of driving – such as the expansion of charging infrastructure and CO₂-free electricity. In this case, statements of intent are not enough. We also need concrete steps. This is a task for industry and politics in equal measure. Our common goal must be to maintain a balance between economic, ecological, and social concerns. For passenger cars, the EU Commission has set a clear course toward electromobility, and now the transformation of the automotive industry has to work. The tight deadlines that have been set will not make this easy. The decisive factor will be acceptance of these ecological goals by as many people as possible, including our own workforce. For this purpose, we are investing in training and re-skilling programs. This is part of our entrepreneurial responsibility. But policymakers that set such strict technological standards also have a duty to preserve jobs in our industry and make mobility affordable. But how will we benefit from the booming new business in electromobility? My colleague Stefan Hartung will go into this in more detail... Electromobility: our next success story … Many thanks, Volkmar! As you just said, diversification is our strength. In electromobility as well, no other company offers as many options as Bosch, from e-bikes to 40-ton trucks. We pave the way for electromobility, whatever the application. And we are confident that electric driving will be the next chapter in the Bosch success story. But to repeat once more: the pace of business developments is one side of the story. The other is the transfer of our associates to this new field of business. Both have been happening at our locations for some time now, but change takes time, and time is especially tight when it comes to the climate emergency. This makes it all the more important to win people over to sustainability. Climate action isn’t just a question of ecology. We have to think about the social climate as well. For electromobility, we have already made upfront investments of 5 billion euros. This year alone, we will spend another 700 million euros. In the end, by making these investments, we anticipated the accelerated ramp-up in the European Union. And we are preparing for increasing demand across the globe. By 2035, it is expected that 60 percent of all newly registered vehicles worldwide will be electric cars. But Bosch sees electromobility in terms of technological alternatives. More precisely, we are investing in battery-electric powertrains, but also in fuel-cell powertrains. We believe that the type of application makes a difference. Especially in heavy trucks and long-haul transport, fuel cells are the first choice. In this area, we are involved in customer projects in China, the United States, and Europe. The first trucks featuring our technology are already on the road in China. When it comes to battery-electric mobility, no other company is working in as many different areas as Bosch. We are helping it to a breakthrough with all kinds of solutions. We supply silicon carbide chips that can improve the efficiency of the battery powertrain by as much as 6 percent. And on the subject of efficiency, our integrated e-axles cannot be beaten. Last not least, we offer drivers access to a network of 200,000 charge spots in Europe. Finding the way to the nearest vacant charge spot and paying without hassle is child’s play – thanks to our internet-based charging service. We believe it is essential to make everyday electric driving easier. On this subject, the cable we are premiering at this year’s IAA is the first to allow cars to be recharged from a regular power socket without the need for a heavy control box. Sustainable mobility should also be uncomplicated – this is the only way it will gain acceptance. With our products and services, we will help electromobility achieve a breakthrough. With our profound knowledge, we are among the frontrunners for all automotive systems, as our show car here at our booth demonstrates. Not least, this is the basis from which we will help bring about automated driving. For an outline of this promising future business field, I will now hand back to Volkmar Denner... Automated driving: we are upping the pace …This is also an area in which we are making progress, ladies and gentlemen. More specifically, it is through driver assistance that we are paving the way for automated driving. Here as well, Bosch is the company for pioneering achievements, from electronic skid control to automatic emergency braking. We are continuing to pursue our “vision zero” – a vision of no more road deaths. Driver assistance makes driving both safer and smoother. This success story is now being continued with new assistance functions for passenger cars. Thanks to Bosch technology, for example, drivers will be able to take their hands off the wheel. We are the market leader in driver assistance, and will grow faster than the market in 2021 as well. Bosch is proficient in all the disciplines needed for automated driving. We pursue a strategy of supplying all the essential elements from a single source: domain control units, sensors, and connectivity. More than 5,000 engineers are working on these areas at Bosch, with more to come. In terms of patents, we are among the frontrunners worldwide – in 2020 alone, we added roughly another one thousand patent applications. When it comes to automated driving, therefore, all roads lead to Bosch. And we are not letting up. One future focus will be on applications in logistics. Driverless trucks moving around distribution hubs – this too will be possible with Bosch on board. However, it will be with driverless parking that everyday automated driving will start. Here again, Bosch is among the frontrunners, and has set standards with pilot projects in Germany and the United States. Above all, the automated valet parking being demonstrated at this year’s IAA is made by Bosch. The key feature here is our idea of a link between vehicles and fixed video cameras in the parking garage. We used our security systems expertise to develop the cameras. Over the next few years, driverless parking will become established in parking garages. Bosch is already working with Mercedes-Benz and other partners on deploying this function in a production vehicle – a world first. In the parking garage at Stuttgart airport, a smartphone command will send cars to their park bay. The new Mercedes-Benz S-Class is the world’s first production vehicle to feature the technology needed for this. Other models will follow, from diverse automakers. By 2025, we expect that several million vehicles and some 1,000 parking garages worldwide will be capable of automated valet parking. Vehicles as internet nodes: our software expertise With functions such as these, ladies and gentlemen, a prediction we made ten years ago is coming true: the vehicle is becoming an internet node. From the car to the cloud – only Bosch is active in all domains of software development. In this connection, we are also collaborating with Microsoft. The software-dominated cars of the future will need companies like Bosch – companies that are equally at home in the world of automotive electronics and of the internet of things, with which cars are connected. These vehicles will have to be equipped with a new electronics and software architecture – and we can supply it. Even the bicycle is becoming part of the internet. Here at the IAA, we are showcasing our new eBike Flow app, which allows the software in our components to be updated, for example. Nearly half the R&D associates in Mobility Solutions are now software engineers. Not least, this is our response to the reshuffling of roles in our industry. More than ever, automakers are developing their own software and employing specialist software and chip suppliers. This means all the more demand for software integration, to ensure that the modules from various sources are compatible in all models. Bosch also has this integrative expertise. Take infotainment computers: they are the most software-intensive systems in a vehicle, and their computing power and software complexity will have doubled once more by 2025. The share of integrated third-party software is especially high here, and can be as much as 90 percent. And here as well, we will post well above-average annual growth of 25 percent between now and 2025. With all our solutions, ladies and gentlemen, we will help shape a new era of mobility, true to the motto displayed at our IAA booth.

Emissions-free mobility is coming – provided the solutions are affordable and fa ...

10.09.2019

Presentations

Business/economy

Emissions-free mobility is coming – provided the solutions are affordable and fa ...

Dr. Volkmar Denner chairman of the Bosch board of management, at the IAA press conference in Frankfurt on September 10, 2019 Check against delivery.This year’s IAA, ladies and gentlemen, is a catalyst – energizing not only the automotive industry and its customers, but also kindling debate and demonstrations. And more than ever, society is faced with critical questions: What could eco-friendly mobility look like? How can the technological progress we need be achieved economically? And how, finally, can we handle the social consequences of climate-friendly transport policy? We will have to find a new position that harmonizes the interests of ecology, economy, and society. There are no simple solutions, and no one person exclusively holds the key. We will have to hammer out a solution in an open debate. We’re here at a motor show, yet questions such as these are just as much on people’s minds as the latest models on four wheels. Our response to them has two parts. First, we want mobility that helps keep our planet healthy and the air in our cities clean. Bosch will be the first industrial enterprise to make all its locations worldwide carbon neutral within one year. And we’re applying the same determination to deliver efficient powertrains, from combustion engines to fuel cells. Second, what is ecologically correct must not be socially and economically incorrect. Emissions-free mobility is possible – if it remains affordable for people and its benefits capture their imagination. Only in this way can we make it a market success. That said, for some time now we’ve regarded mobility as much more than people driving their own cars. As we see it, tomorrow’s mobility will not only be electrified and automated, but also connected and personalized. And it is above all this personalized form that will be about much more than driving. For us, it means services that find the best way for each individual to get to their destination, whether on two or four wheels, by road or by rail. Supporting multimodal mobility is also a response to the critical issues surrounding road traffic. Key to the future: three billion euros annually for software But first, we’re developing the technological foundations for the mobility of the future. Our open sesame for all this is our profound expertise in electronics and software. Even now, our Mobility Solutions business sector employs some 14,000 software developers, and its annual software engineering expenditure comes to nearly 3 billion euros. The upshot is significantly more powerful vehicle electronics and software architecture, which is important for connected driving as well as automated and electrified driving. Computing power will increase by a factor of at least 1,000 at the start of the next decade. What we will be seeing is high-performance vehicle control units of the kind Bosch is already creating for the integration of infotainment systems and driver assistance functions. With computers such as these, vehicles will increasingly act as players on the internet of things. Growth at last: electromobility is turning the corner But how will they drive on tomorrow’s roads? We foresee a gradual transformation of the automotive powertrain. First of all, there’s still some mileage left in the combustion engine. In 2030, three-quarters of all new vehicles will feature a diesel or gasoline engine, whether with or without a hybrid option. For this reason alone, further refining these engines is environmentally expedient. Thanks to Bosch’s new exhaust technology, diesel engines’ NOx emissions have been almost completely eliminated, as independent tests have already shown. Our solution is already in production, and features in a number of vehicles being presented at this show. Our next goal is the reduction of particulates from gasoline engines. More specifically, this means 70 percent less particulate matter than permitted by the current Euro 6d standard – both on the road and at the test bench. But that’s not all. We can also reduce brake dust by more than 90 percent, whether with regenerative braking systems or with our iDisc brake disc. We are coming ever closer to our goal of road traffic that no longer pollutes the air in our cities. The electromobility market is also gaining speed at last. It is becoming ever more obvious that the electrical powertrain will be Bosch’s next success story. Both technologically and commercially, we lead the way. We lead the way in the efficiency of our components, and have a broader footprint than other suppliers – from bikes to trucks. And growth is on its way. In 2018, we acquired orders for 30 electromobility projects worth 8 billion euros, and the first half of 2019 has already seen a series of further orders worth 5 billion euros. The total value of the electromobility orders we have won in the last 18 months thus amounts to 13 billion euros. As early as 2020, our sales in this area will pass the one-billion-euro mark. For 2025, we have set ourselves a sales target of 5 billion euros – a target which we will surpass. Our products are finding a market, and our upfront investments are paying off. At the same time, we are commercializing the fuel-cell powertrain. To achieve this, we are preparing to manufacture a Bosch stack. More specifically, we are further refining the stack made by our partner Powercell, which already offers the highest power density in the market. The task now is to manufacture it cost-effectively. We will do this not only through economies of scale, but also through simultaneous engineering of the product and the manufacturing process. This is one of Bosch’s strengths. And one of the ways we will exploit this strength is by deploying engineers experienced in mass-production diesel projects to work on this new technology. We made common rail affordable, and we will do the same for alternative powertrains such as the fuel cell. It starts with parking: automated driving becomes everyday reality We’re also in the lead on the path to automated driving. In this endeavor, we will generate 12 percent growth with driver assistance systems this year, with sales rising to 2 billion euros. Sales of radar sensors alone will grow 20 percent in 2019, and those of video sensors by 30 percent. For the next levels of automated driving, we will invest 4 billion euros up to 2022. The next step is freeway assistants that allow drivers to take their hands off the wheel. We are currently developing such level 2 hands-off systems for the Asian and U.S. markets. At present, it is only there that such systems are legally permissible. We need them to be approved for exactly the same purpose in Europe, so that the next stage of automation can also happen on our roads. After all, we were given approval for the world’s first driverless parking system right here in Germany – for our joint project with Daimler in Stuttgart’s Mercedes-Benz Museum. The project is no longer a prototype, but is going into regular operation. I’ve brought along a film clip to show you how the automated valeting and parking service works. And of course, that’s not the end of the story. Here as well, we will work on costs. One way of doing so is by deploying the video cameras we use in our building technology. By the end of 2021, we will have set up automated valet parking in a dozen further parking garages, and by 2025, we aim to have it available at over one hundred more. But with this first approval, we can say that everyday automated driving starts with parking. Equipped for disruptive trends: projects with new market players Technologically, we are the innovation leader – but how do we foresee new business ideas in our rapidly changing industry? Bosch is deliberately entering into business with new market players that may also be antennae for disruptive trends. For example, we’re working with DiDi, Lyft, and Uber – the three biggest ride-hailing providers, who already arrange more than 50 million rides a day in total worldwide. For DiDi, we are using a cloud service to prolong batteries’ service lives. To give you an idea of the new approaches we’re taking in our collaboration with new providers, as well as of the visions we have for web-based mobility, I’ll now hand over to Stefan Hartung.

More road freight, less impact on the environment and road network: Bosch is enh ...

19.09.2018

Presentations

Business/economy

More road freight, less impact on the environment and road network: Bosch is enh ...

Presentation by Dr. Rolf Bulander and Dr. Markus Heyn, members of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH, at the press conference on September 19, 2018, at IAA Commercial Vehicles in Hannover Check against delivery.There are moments, ladies and gentlemen, when we tend to see trucks, the beasts of burden on our roads, as more of a burden than anything else. When they slow down traffic in the freeway fast lane, or block the off-ramps leading to service stations, we see them as more of a curse than a blessing. And as if that were not enough, road freight will increase by another 50 percent by 2040. What can we do to minimize its impact on the environment, people, and the road network? This is one of the most pressing issues of traffic policy. Bosch has some technical solutions, and not just under the hood, but also on the internet. With our hardware and software, we are increasing trucks’ utility. We want them to be beasts of burden, but not a burden for others. More specifically, what are the issues that concern the logistics industry? Let me sketch out six points: The first is climate action. The European Union has announced its first ever CO 2 standards for trucks. Regardless of the powertrain technology used, Bosch systems help improve new trucks’ carbon footprint. The second is clean air. Emissions standards for trucks are becoming tighter – worldwide. In 2020, for example, India will leapfrog from Euro 4 to Euro 6. In the United States, emissions are to be measured in real driving conditions, like in Europe. And the emissions limits will be significantly lower. Bosch offers truck manufacturers the solutions they need to satisfy these ecological demands. Third, urbanization. Today, half the global population lives in cities. By 2050, the share will be two-thirds. Road freight will take on a dual role as a result. While heavy trucks will tend to deliver goods to depots on city outskirts, the final mile will be the job of light trucks and vans. Logistics needs to be reimagined, especially in conurbations. And Bosch has solutions for this new-look urban freight transport, including cargo scooters and cargo bicycles. Fourth, online commerce. In Germany alone, the number of packages delivered topped three billion for the first time in 2017, and market studies expect the figure to reach 3.8 billion by 2020. This development is being driven by the increasing number of orders over the internet. But it is the internet, or rather the internet of things, that is helping Bosch to make deliveries significantly more efficient. Fifth, accident prevention. Trucks are involved in one in ten accidents resulting in personal injury. And when trucks are involved in accidents, the risk of fatalities is twice as high as when only passenger cars are involved. This is reason enough to use Bosch driver assistance systems to make truckers’ lives easier and our roads safer. Sixth, economic considerations, or more specifically cost pressure on logistics companies. Fuel accounts for one-third of trucks’ operating costs, and drivers for roughly another third. Even now, there are 50,000 too few truckers in the United States, and that figure is likely to triple within ten years. There are signs that this lack of drivers will also affect Europe. Bosch’s answer to this is to teach trucks to drive – this will prevent accidents, and the fuel savings will reduce CO 2 emissions. What benefits logistics companies will also benefit people and the environment. It’s a win-win situation. Technology for trucks, services for logistics: Bosch’s dual strength Beyond the question of costs, therefore, the major issues of mobility also concern the commercial-vehicle and logistics industries. The road freight of the future should ideally be as free of emissions, accidents, and stress as possible. To achieve this, we have to increasingly electrify, automate, and connect it. It is not only in passenger cars that we are taking this development path, but also in road freight, with all its peculiar characteristics. We are one of the world’s leading IoT providers, as well as one of the biggest suppliers in the commercial-vehicle industry – few other companies can combine logistics services and truck technology the way we can. For the modernization of freight traffic, Bosch can bring both economic and technological strength to the table. This year, our Mobility Solutions business sector is expected to increase its sales from day-to-day business by four percent, and will thus continue to grow twice as fast as automobile production. It generates every fourth euro of its sales revenue from technology for commercial vehicles, from vans to mega-trucks. Our business with solutions for trucks and off-highway vehicles is growing especially rapidly. Like last year, growth will be between seven and eight percent. Beyond the current year, we will be continuing our growth trajectory by investing in innovations. By the end of the year, Bosch will have over 54,500 R&D associates working on mobility solutions – 5,000 more than at the beginning of the year. This is also the team that will create new solutions for transport and logistics. For example, 2,600 engineers alone are working on the truck powertrain of the future. Diesel, battery, and fuel cell: for Bosch, there is more than one alternative powertrain What will this powertrain be? We can imagine a number of alternatives, but are also deliberately continuing to develop diesel technology. Given that 80 to 90 percent of all trucks will be diesel-powered in 2025, this is not least a matter of necessity. Bosch engineers will play their part in helping diesel-powered trucks meet emissions and consumption standards worldwide. It’s a question of combating global warming and protecting the environment – as we already said, these are the logistics industry’s top two challenges. Every milligram of reduced emissions counts, and every percentage-point reduction in fuel consumption means an average 700 euro reduction in annual operating costs for a long-distance truck. How do we want to go about this? For us, reducing fuel consumption and CO 2 emissions means increasing the efficiency of injection systems. And when it comes to reducing NOx emissions, one of our solutions is the same active management of exhaust-gas temperature we have applied in passenger cars. For us, this is both a technological challenge and a business opportunity. By the start of the next decade, our global business with exhaust-gas treatment systems will have doubled from its 2016 level. And unit sales of our common-rail injection systems grew by one-third in 2017 alone, and even faster in China. In the years ahead, these sales will stabilize on a high level. All this clearly shows that environmental protection is both a challenge and a boost for our truck-diesel business. Nonetheless, there will be a growth in electromobility in freight traffic over the course of the next decade, and Bosch will be involved. By 2030, every fourth new commercial vehicle worldwide – nearly every third in China – will be electrically driven. Initially, these vehicles will mainly be urban buses and delivery vans. This is a field in which we scored business success early on: our powertrain components are to be found in Europe’s largest electric vehicle fleet, the German Post Office’s StreetScooters. It is our objective to be the global market leader for electromobility as well. To achieve it, we offer a wide portfolio for commercial-vehicle electrification – from bicycles, as the smallest delivery vehicles, all the way to 40-ton trucks. The portfolio starts with our 36-volt powertrains for cargo bikes that can weave flexibly through urban traffic. Our e-bike business alone already supplies them to four cargo-bike manufacturers. And in 2019, our 48-volt powertrain system will debut in an e-trike for mail and package deliveries. Here, we make use of a modular system, which means that it takes a maximum of 18 months from the awarding of a contract to start of production. Next in line is our e-axle for vans, which goes into production in 2019. Easy to integrate, this system significantly cuts development times for both established automakers and new market entrants. With this system as well, we are giving urban delivery traffic a new electric look. Indeed, we can even electrify today’s semitrailers. Here in Hannover, we are showcasing an electrified trailer axle that can be integrated into existing truck trailers. During braking, the axle recuperates energy and feeds it back into the trailer power units. In a refrigerated trailer, this saves nearly 10,000 euros a year. This money-saving electromobility feature can also be retrofitted. Finally, the ultimate question to be solved is the electrification of heavy tractor units. For medium-range trucks, we are developing battery-electrical powertrains. But how can heavy, long-haul delivery trucks be electrified? A battery would be too heavy and too expensive, and its range too short – the cost-driven freight transportation business has long regarded trucks that drive electrically over long distances as technically and economically unfeasible. Our solution is the fuel cell. Let’s compare the figures. A 40-ton truck capable of driving long distances electrically would have to have nearly ten tons of state-of-the-art batteries on board. A hydrogen tank for a fuel cell would weigh one-tenth of that. Bosch is using two alliances to take up this technology. The first is with the U.S. start-up Nikola Motors, which wants not only to build the necessary vehicles but also to establish a network of hydrogen filling stations. The second is with the Chinese engine manufacturer Weichai Power. Its prospects are good, not least because one million fuel-cell vehicles are expected to be driving on China’s roads by 2030. Worldwide, we are making new energy available for trucks. For many years to come, the development of commercial-vehicle powertrains will involve a number of disciplines. We would be well advised to approach their electrification with a technologically open mind. And let’s not forget that we also need to tackle synfuels, where alternative fuels are produced using electricity from renewables. Nobody who wants to give heavy trucks a secure future can afford to rule out this option. When driverless trucks shuttle between depots: Bosch is initially focusing automated truck development on the U.S. Electrification is one major growth area in commercial-vehicle technology. Automation is another. In both areas, the signs are set for double-digit market growth over the next decade. Driver assistance systems are a stepping stone on the road to automation. They are crucially important for accident prevention, one of the six main points outlined at the start of our talk. Truck turn assistants, for example, help prevent trucks injuring pedestrians and cyclists. Bosch supplies the necessary radar sensors. Not least, we can interface assistance and steering systems. Our new generation of electronically controlled steering systems, for example, supports lane-keeping functions and automation. It is on show in a number of trucks at this year’s IAA. As we move toward automated driving over the next five years, demand for smart steering systems in heavy trucks will double annually, and Bosch will lead the way. In the United States, Bosch sees huge potential for automation in trucks. It is there that the lack of truckers is greatest, and there that every tenth truck sticks to the same highway routes. First of all, let’s consider what we call “hub-to-hub” automation. By this we mean driverless trucks that shuttle continuously back and forth between two or three depots. This saves labor costs, increases transport volumes, shortens the payback time for investments in vehicles, and provides security – solving several of the industry’s problems in one fell swoop. Even if automation like this is worthwhile, the technical challenges are considerable, whether in terms of computing power, which would have to increase 1,000-fold in a 40-ton truck, or whether in terms of the control center, which would have to resemble air traffic control. Nonetheless, the result could be an unprecedented services business. One other logical development is platooning, or trucks driving in automated fashion in each other’s wind shadow. This saves not only labor costs, but also fuel. However, it also means that legislation, technology, and infrastructure have to satisfy stricter requirements. Bosch is involved in major research projects in the field. And we are developing the telematics components needed for data exchange among platooning trucks. The first prototypes will be tested starting in 2019. We could well see car-to-car communication in trucks before we see it in passenger cars, since platooning is clearly an application that makes economic sense. Where’s the container, where are the goods? Digitally connected logistics solutions, from freeway to front door Especially in trucks, connected driving is more than just an essential requirement for automated driving. The internet offers the possibility of a new efficiency for transport systems, and of relief for our congested roads as well as for logistics companies. It’s our job to exploit this potential – indeed, this was one of the issues we outlined at the start of our presentation. When it comes to the logistics of the future, Bosch can contribute twofold technical expertise. On the one hand, its broad knowledge of the commercial-vehicle domain, and on the other its profound IoT expertise. These two factors allow us to offer digitally connected logistics solutions, from the freeway to the front door. But first, we connect trucks with the outside world. Today, nearly every new truck in Europe and the United States is part of the internet. In this context, we supply truck manufacturers with telematics platforms that make things such as software updates or predictive diagnostics possible. All in all, our sales of connectivity control units for trucks are growing by 15 to 20 percent annually. By means of connected driving, ladies and gentlemen, Bosch is also moving directly into the business of connected services. And it is this business that is taking us beyond our role as a supplier to the commercial-vehicle industry. Even now, our service centers are monitoring the condition of especially critical deliveries of goods around the clock. In some cases, these are vital goods such as blood plasma. Every year, our control centers monitor nearly 40,000 high-value truck loads in transit. In addition, we are expanding our platform that provides secure truck parking along freeways. The Hamburg cruise terminal is the latest example of this. From next month, we will be offering long-haul trucks secure parking spaces there. This service is also intended for truck drivers waiting for their handling slot at one of the container terminals. The internet of things can not only make freight transport more secure than ever – it can also make it even more efficient. If we consider that nearly every fifth truck journey is unladen, there is clearly a lot of potential to be exploited here. Moreover, Bosch is helping to create clarity in what was previously a logistical blind spot. Using the internet of things, we are automating delivery tracking by making a digital track and trace function possible. Our solution uses sensors on goods and containers that transfer information about position, temperature, and vibration to the cloud. Where is the transport container, and how are the goods doing? Finding answers to these questions used to take several hours: now they can be found in a matter of seconds. Initial experience in the field shows that the real-time logistics solutions we offer mean that dispatchers can cut their search and inventory effort by more than half. Moreover, the availability of reusable containers is increased by as much as 30 percent. We call this logistics 4.0. This final point is a perfect illustration of the path Bosch wants to take in the logistics industry. Electrifying and automating trucks is one part of the story. Connectivity also contributes to this, but it can also increase the productivity of road freight as a whole. We are using the internet to reduce the burden on the road network. There is no doubt that more and more goods need to be transported. Bosch solutions are helping to ensure that this demand does not come up against the limits to growth.

Eliminating range anxiety: New services are making electromobility fit for every ...

21.02.2018

Presentations

Business/economy

Eliminating range anxiety: New services are making electromobility fit for every ...

Presentation by Dr. Rainer Kallenbach, president, Connected Mobility Solutions division, at the Bosch ConnectedWorld press briefing on February 21, 2018, in Berlin. Check against delivery.Thank you, Mr. Denner. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to offer you a closer look at our system!e concept. In technical terms, system!e connects the electric powertrain to the Bosch Automotive Cloud Suite. This yields web-based services that improve the everyday benefits of electromobility – and lowers the barriers to purchasing an electric car. In the future, electric cars with system!e will know precisely when their power will run out, but also where they can find the next charging station. It will also be easier to integrate them into the owner’s home power grid. Let me illustrate this with three specific applications: First, an extended range forecasts. This helps overcome a key concern regarding electromobility. According to all relevant surveys, buying an electric car falls through most often due to “range anxiety” – car buyers rank the limited range of these cars ahead of the high price and long charge times as reasons for their “no.” Our extended range forecasts can allay drivers’ fears that their electric car will leave them stranded somewhere. The forecasts use data from the environment and the vehicle itself – traffic and weather forecasts, current battery charge, energy consumption of heating and air conditioning, tire pressure, and of course the driver’s personal driving style. All this feeds into highly accurate forecasts of the remaining range. Second, a charging assistant for longer journeys. This is another service that seeks to counter range anxiety. It starts with a new kind of route planning, which is based on the extended range forecast and makes suggestions according to when charging stops are required. Additional information about, for example, restaurants, cafés, and shopping options near the stop allow drivers to make the most of the charging time. And because the charging stations are connected to the internet, the service can arrange for payment online. As a result, driving even longer stretches with an electric car is less stressful. Driving electric, yet stress-free – that is the goal. Third, our concept of energy management for charging at home, which can cut costs considerably. Specifically, this means that we will be able to integrate the electric car into the smart home’s electricity grid. Its battery can then, for instance, supplement the stationary storage device for the house’s photovoltaic system. During the day, the car absorbs surplus solar power; the battery feeds it back at night to, say, operate a heat pump. Still, the homeowners will want to drive their electric car again in the morning – all they need to do is tell the car the minimum charge needed for the desired destination. That is an example of how efficiently car and home will work together in the future. Connecting electric cars with the smart home is a prime example of a cross-domain ecosystem, the supreme discipline on the internet of things. Implementing it requires a versatile company – a company like Bosch, whose expertise extends beyond the car. That is why we also see system!e as a toolkit; we will use it to derive solutions for established automakers as well as start-ups. This is no far-off vision, either: together with our customers and partners, we will be able to supply the corresponding services within the next few months. Many talk about the future of mobility. We’re making it ready for the market. For more on what we are launching on the market besides mobility, some of which we are presenting here at Bosch ConnectedWorld, I now turn things over to Stefan Hartung.

A revolution in the everyday: How Bosch is seizing the opportunities of connectivity

21.02.2018

Presentations

Business/economy

A revolution in the everyday: How Bosch is seizing the opportunities of connectivity

Presentation by Dr. Stefan Hartung, member of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH, at the Bosch ConnectedWorld press briefing, on February 21, 2018, in Berlin. Check against delivery.Ladies and gentlemen: We just heard it from Mr. Denner: connectivity is the future. And not just connectivity of cars and mobility – the scope is much broader. The opportunities that the internet of things presents for our roads, our workplaces, and our homes are what we are showcasing at Bosch ConnectedWorld. I want to emphasize that we are not presenting far-off visions of the future; instead, we’re demonstrating actual, real-world solutions. A few facts to illustrate this: Bosch has already designed, developed, and carried out 250 IoT projects. We are currently working on 170 of our own IoT projects, in areas as varied as connected mobility, connected buildings, connected industry, and connected agriculture – all of which are running on our own Bosch IoT Cloud. We sold 38 million web-enabled products in 2017. Today, the Bosch IoT Suite connects 6.2 million sensors, devices, and machines with users and company applications. We recognized the potential of connectivity early on, and have been actively shaping the connected world for nearly ten years. We have steadily expanded our software and IT expertise. With over 25,000 software experts, today we are a software company, too. But how do we differ from the internet giants in the U.S. and Asia? Where Silicon Valley connects the digital world, Bosch connects the real world. We have expertise in hardware as well as in software. Above all, our IoT approach is aimed at achieving concrete improvements in people’s real, everyday lives. But what does that mean, exactly? Let me give you some examples: The first concerns the connected city . In just about 30 years, two-thirds of the global population – six billion people – will be living in cities. Cities today already cause 80 percent of all greenhouse-gas emissions and consume 75 percent of the world’s energy. Going forward, the quality of life in cities will depend to a large extent on intelligent and connected solutions. Between now and 2020, the smart-city market will grow 19 percent each year to reach 700 billion euros. In this sector, we can draw on our broad portfolio and cross-domain expertise, while our customers benefit from our concrete solutions in the areas of energy, buildings, mobility, security, safety, and e-governance. The company is currently involved in 14 extensive smart-city projects in places such as San Francisco, Singapore, Tianjin, Berlin, and Stuttgart. It also won’t be the last. Today, we’re signing an agreement with the Chinese property developer Country Garden. Together, we will investigate opportunities for planning and building additional connected cities and smart living labs in China. Country Garden has more than 25 years’ experience in developing residential areas, and Bosch will contribute its IoT and customer expertise. Over in the exhibition area, you can take a look at our activities in the smart city domain. Connected homes: We are also showcasing the smart kitchen here at Bosch ConnectedWorld. With Bosch’s Home Connect app, users can control a range of models of dishwashers, ovens, refrigerators, and coffee machines. Besides connected appliances, we offer an increasing number of digital services, too. During Mr. Denner’s presentation you saw Mykie, the digital kitchen assistant who understands gestures and spoken language. Say you want to make a casserole, but with lamb instead of bacon. Mykie can adapt the recipe for you – in the future, taking into account what you have in the pantry – and can set the oven to the correct temperature as well. Connected agriculture: Bosch also helps ranchers and farmers with their work. On Fazenda Santa Fé, one of Brazil’s largest cattle ranches, Bosch sensors, software, and services help ranchers to monitor the weight gain of their livestock. Brazil alone has 100 million head of cattle, Argentina has 50 million, and the U.S. has another 100 million. We have also found a wide range of uses for smart agriculture here in Germany: our sensor-based solutions already support farmers who are growing tomatoes, asparagus, or potatoes, and our cloud-based milk monitoring system helps dairies and dairy farmers ensure that their milk doesn’t spoil. We decided to forgo the cattle herds today, but you can still learn about our asparagus and strawberry sensors here. Bosch’s newly formed Connected Industry business unit began operations in January 2018. It brings together the Industry 4.0 activities of our various departments and units, above all those in the software and services business. The unit’s more than 500 associates offer our collective experience in project realization. Our industrial subsidiary Bosch Rexroth is also playing a major role here. It’s working on fully-connected factories. These will be able to do much more than just reduce the power consumption of a single machine, for example. In the future, completely connected machines will be able to independently make decisions and organize themselves thanks to artificial intelligence. Whether as a one-off or in large volumes, connected industry and logistics enable us as well as our customers to produce items flexibly and cost-effectively. In about two years, we’ll be able to show you what this looks like in our reference factory in Xian, China. Between now and 2020, we aim to exploit Industry 4.0 to increase sales by more than a billion euros. Tomorrow, I will join with representatives from our partner companies to speak more about fully connected manufacturing, connected logistics, and especially about new services and business models in my keynote. I look forward to seeing you there. With that, I come to the end of my presentation. We predicted early on that the IoT would change everything. We are visionary thinkers, designers, and partners for multiple aspects of the digital transformation. Thank you very much. We would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

From vision to business: Connected driving is becoming a growth area

21.02.2018

Presentations

Business/economy

From vision to business: Connected driving is becoming a growth area

Presentation by Dr. Volkmar Denner, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH, at the Bosch ConnectedWorld press briefing on February 21, 2018, in Berlin. Check against delivery.Ladies and gentlemen: Connectivity is the future, and the future of mobility in particular. By that I mean not just modernizing the road and rail networks, but connecting all modes of transport via the internet. We are showcasing this and much more here at Bosch ConnectedWorld in Berlin. BCW is one of the world’s largest conferences on the internet of things, and draws players at the forefront of digitalization. Here we can exchange views with nearly 4,000 IoT pioneers and implementers, and display the practical benefits of more than 60 IoT solutions. The German capital is the perfect setting for this: we just opened our IoT campus here one month ago, and the city is also home to 1,000 of the 3,500 e-scooters operated by our sharing service COUP. These Berlin examples demonstrate that we’re not concerned with far-off visions of the connected world and the mobility of tomorrow, but are already delivering pioneering solutions for today’s traffic problems. It is with these solutions that we plan to grow. Creating our new division, Connected Mobility Solutions, sends a clear signal: we’re converting our many service projects for tomorrow’s mobility into a services business. For example, we have collaborated with partners in developing a multimodal mobility assistant that enables the planning, booking, and payment of car- and bike-sharing, rail, and bus services. And this year, our technology is making connected parking a reality for the first time – whether it is cars driving themselves to free spots in parking garages, or using their sensors to detect available curbside parking and feeding that information into an online map. Both of these solutions make city life easier. For realizing services such as these, we have our own software platform: the Bosch Automotive Cloud Suite. We are pooling all of this in our new division, which will be the new home for more than 20 services from shared mobility, multimodal mobility, and connectivity-based service offerings for drivers. Bosch has over 600 associates in Connected Mobility Solutions at five locations in Germany and China. The business potential arises from the growing fleet of connected vehicles, which is expected to number more than 470 million by 2025. Digital and mobility services aim to tap that potential. Their worldwide market volume is projected to grow from 47 to 140 billion euros within five years, meaning between 2017 and 2022. It is still a fragmented market. Bosch aims for significant double-digit growth with the solutions we offer. One part of this plan is an acquisition in the U.S., which I would like to announce today. Bosch is entering the business of web-based ridesharing services: we have acquired the U.S. start-up SPLT, which offers such services specifically for commuters. This kind of connectivity also helps solve traffic problems of the here and now – problems shared by anyone trying to get from A to B. What makes the SPLT service special is that it is a B2B solution aimed not directly at potential carpoolers, but rather at their employers. SPLT operates a platform that can coordinate ridesharing offers for employees of companies, universities, or municipalities. Why does it make sense to offer this solution via the employer? The answer is simple: carpools are based on the idea that multiple people need to get to the same place at the same time. And where and when is that more often the case then on the way to the same workplace? This is precisely where SPLT comes in: an algorithm computes the best grouping of employees for the ride-share as well as the fastest route. Less stress during rush hour, good for the environment and the wallet – these are the objectives. SPLT already has some 140,000 users at companies and public authorities throughout the U.S., Mexico, and Germany – a number that is sure to multiply over the next few years. Connectivity is not the only development path that Bosch is pursuing towards mobility of the future. In fact, we are moving forward on three paths: connecting, electrifying, and automating driving. The goal is to make driving as stress-free, emissions-free, and accident-free as possible. All in all, we have a comprehensive vision of future mobility in which connectivity is intertwined with the other two paths. This is plain to see at this year’s Bosch ConnectedWorld, especially in the interplay between electric and connected driving. Electromobility – from the beginning, Bosch has seen it as more than an alternative powertrain for cars. We first electrified cycling, and today are a leading supplier of e-bike systems in the premium segment. Our goal is to deliver electric drive solutions for everything from bicycles to trucks. In all that we do, we see ourselves as a systems supplier. For example, we have acquired our first orders for the e-axle, which integrates the transmission, electric motor, and power electronics in electric cars. But our systems expertise goes beyond hardware – we also connect electromobility with the 3 S’s so crucial to the internet of things: sensors, software, and services. After all, electric driving, too, is best when connected. To that end, we are introducing a new concept at this Bosch ConnectedWorld: we call it system!e. I would now like to hand over to Rainer Kallenbach, the president of our new Connected Mobility Solutions division, who will tell you more about it.