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Kilometre by kilometre, the eBike learns more

02.07.2024

Press release

Electrified mobility

Kilometre by kilometre, the eBike learns more

Stuttgart/Reutlingen – AI solutions are increasingly being used to make a variety of everyday tasks easier. They impress with personalised applications by analysing individual needs and continuously learning from them. Thanks to Connected Biking, the physical riding experience merges with the digital world. Consequently, the eBike has long become an intelligent companion. Connected via the eBike Flow app, it forms part of a modern, digital lifestyle and always remains up-to-date. Bosch eBike Systems integrates AI-based solutions into the smart system, which recognise user behaviour, learn from it and enable, for example, smarter route planning and navigation. We’re confident that Connected Biking is the future. Only by merging the physical riding experience with the digital world can the full potential of our eBike systems be realised....explains Gregor Dasbach, Vice President Digital Business at Bosch eBike Systems. “With the integration of AI, we are taking the next logical step in developing and creating priceless added value for eBikers: Kilometre by kilometre, the eBike learns more and unnoticed, becomes a smart and connected companion along the way.” Range Control: AI ensures greater reliability when it comes to range on the eBike The new, AI-based “Range Control” feature makes planning rides easier: eBikers no longer need to worry about their battery range. When you plan a route in the eBike Flow app, it immediately indicates the percent of battery charge remaining when you reach your destination. To display the most accurate range possible, the smart system gathers various information, including the system weight, the elevation profile of the route and your personal riding behaviour during your recent rides. Its predictions become increasingly precise: once the first activities have been recorded, the system is able to determine the battery status on arrival much more accurately than on the first journey. The predicted battery level is also updated during the journey and the current riding style is taken into account. This means that riders can concentrate fully on their eBike experience. To rule out every last worry about range during the journey, you can even set the desired minimum battery level at destination. The smart system takes care of the rest – extremely practical if, for example, charging isn’t possible before the return journey or the next ride. If required, eBikers can enable this additional feature via a toggle button in the eBike Flow app. A slider can then be used to precisely set the desired battery level at destination. Depending on the selection, the app indicates whether the route can be travelled with full, low or very low support. During the journey, the smart system then adjusts the motor support as necessary. This ensures that you arrive with the predetermined battery level. With this new development, wondering whether the battery will last to the destination is now a thing of the past for eBikes with a smart system from Bosch. Personalised arrival time and route planning The smart system also uses other AI features for personalised planning. The expected arrival time, for example, can be calculated and displayed before a ride. An analysis of previous riding behaviour on similar routes helps here. eBikers also benefit from personalised route suggestions: The smart system knows, for example, which road types, which surfaces and which gradients and speeds are preferred, and makes a corresponding route recommendation. Current charge level for easy planning and detailed maps for Kiox displays Further new functions make navigation and planning even easier. With the “current charge level” feature , users can track the battery status live during the charging process on the eBike Flow app and view it anytime and anywhere. So you can plan your next tour or onward journey at home on the couch or in a cosy café. The “extended navigation” feature enhances the navigation display on the Kiox 300 and Kiox 500 displays. This no longer only shows the planned route and junctions, but also all side roads. These new, additional map details ensure the best possible orientation and intuitive navigation. “Extended navigation” and “current charge level” are part of the Flow+ subscription service. New insights on completed journeys Bosch also presents numerous innovations in terms of the ride statistics. This means that all riders who have a Bosch eBike ABS installed on their eBike can view the percentage of braking manoeuvres with and without ABS as a direct comparison in the eBike Flow app. During the ride, the number of braking manoeuvres where ABS was activated is also displayed. The “riding mode usage” display is no longer only available during the ride, but also as a statistic afterwards. A clear pie chart shows the ratios of the riding modes used (including Off mode). The same applies to the “power share” screen. The “power share” screen provides insights into the average rider power compared to the average power of the drive unit, based on current activity and the selected riding mode. This information helps eBikers to improve their fitness level and optimise their training. Display of riding mode usage and power share after the ride are both part of Flow+. New Eco+ mode enables long ranges In addition to the digital features, Bosch is also introducing a new riding mode for the smart system. The new Eco+ mode blurs the boundaries between eBiking and normal cycling, saves energy and enables particularly long ranges. It is particularly suitable for eBikers who enjoy pedalling without support on flat terrain, but do not want to do without a motor on climbs or when overtaking, for example. Depending on the rider performance, the motor remains completely switched off until an activation threshold that can be customised in the eBike Flow app is exceeded. This is ideal for lightweight eBikes, but also for eSUVs and eTrekking bikes. When support is no longer required, the motor switches off automatically. This makes it easy to save energy and extend the range, making even lengthy tours possible without charging or replacing the battery. The Eco+ mode is available for all drive units with the smart system from Bosch eBike Systems and can be installed on your own eBike using the eBike Flow app. Even more customisation: display configuration on the Purion 200 The networking of components creates new possibilities for customisation. Like the Kiox 300 and Kiox 500 displays, the display of the Purion 200 control unit can now also be customised according to your own preferences: eBikers can sort, add or delete content in the eBike Flow app. You prefer the speed to be displayed on the left and always want the heart rate on the right? No problem, because two tiles per screen can be freely assigned. The screen order can also be redefined.

For safer roads: Bosch teams up with Microsoft to explore new frontiers with gen ...

28.02.2024

Press release

Automated mobility

For safer roads: Bosch teams up with Microsoft to explore new frontiers with gen ...

Stuttgart, Germany – It’s a scenario that no driver ever wants to see: a ball rolling out into the road. The chances are it will be followed immediately by a child in hot pursuit, oblivious to any traffic. But while human drivers can assess this situation using their contextual knowledge, today’s assisted and automated driving systems still have to learn how to do it. Bosch is pursuing the use of generative AI in terms to further improve automated driving functions. As part of this, Bosch and Microsoft are exploring opportunities to collaborate and leverage the power of generative AI. “Bosch is working on bringing a new dimension of AI applications into the vehicle,” said Dr. Stefan Hartung, chairman of the Bosch board of management, at this year’s Bosch Connected World (BCW) AIoT industry conference in Berlin. The expectation is that generative AI will enable vehicles to assess situations and react accordingly, and in this way keep road users even safer. Greater safety on the roads is also the wish of 60 percent of respondents to this year’s Bosch Tech Compass, a worldwide representative Bosch survey on the subjects of technology and AI. Bosch is working on bringing a new dimension of AI applications into the vehicle,...says Dr. Stefan Hartung, chairman of the board of management. Generative AI to make road traffic safer The two companies anticipate that a collaboration would take the performance of automated driving functions to the next level. They would like to see generative AI help enhance convenience in the vehicle and to provide greater safety for all road users. To achieve this, Bosch's comprehensive understanding of vehicles and automotive-specific AI expertise will be invaluable, as well as their access to vehicle sensor data to feed the generative AI. “In our unwavering commitment to safer roads, Microsoft is eager to explore collaboration opportunities with Bosch to pioneer the realm of generative AI,” said Uli Homann, Microsoft CVP and Distinguished Architect. Even today, when it comes to training systems for automated driving, AI quickly comes up against its limits. Today’s driver assistance systems can detect people, animals, objects, and vehicles, but in the near future generative AI could help determine whether a situation could potentially lead to an accident. Generative AI utilizes vast amounts of data to train systems for automated driving, enabling them to draw improved conclusions from this data. For example, it could deduce whether an object on the road ahead is a plastic bag or a damaged vehicle part. This information can be used either to communicate directly with the driver – such as by displaying a warning – or to initiate appropriate driving maneuvers, such as braking while switching on the hazard warning lights. Bosch and Microsoft have already partnered to develop a universal software platform for seamlessly connecting cars and the cloud, and are looking forward to work together to identify new opportunities to bring cutting-edge AI technology to their customers and the autonomous vehicle industry. Generative AI as a boost to innovation “Generative AI is a boost to innovation. It can transform industry in much the same way as the invention of the computer,” says Dr. Tanja Rueckert, member of the Bosch board of management and chief digital officer. The new 2024 Bosch Tech Compass shows this as well: 64 percent of respondents believe that AI is the technology with the greatest importance for the future. In comparison, only 41 percent of respondents were of the same opinion just one year ago. Generative AI is a boost to innovation. It can transform industry in much the same way as the invention of the computer,...says Dr. Tanja Rueckert, member of the Bosch board of management and chief digital officer. From manufacturing to everyday office work, generative AI is already being used in many areas at Bosch. In addition to Microsoft, the company is working with several partners, including AWS, Google, and Aleph Alpha. The Bosch Group’s venture capital unit, Bosch Ventures, invested in the AI company Aleph Alpha last year. Bosch also announced it would collaborate with the startup on finding new use cases both for Bosch associates and customers. “Bosch and Aleph Alpha want to learn from each other, benefit from each other’s know-how, and work together on cross-domain use cases,” Rueckert says. This partnership is now bearing its first fruits in North America: in collaboration with Aleph Alpha, Bosch is debuting AI-based speech recognition on behalf of a premium car manufacturer. In this solution, a chatbot understands and answers breakdown service calls with the help of natural language processing, which also recognizes dialects, accents, and moods. The call is taken directly, reducing the driver’s waiting time to a minimum. As many as 40 percent of calls can be processed and resolved automatically; for more complex queries, the bot transmits all relevant information to a service center agent who takes over the case immediately. From the AI search engine to manufacturing AI experts at Bosch are currently working on well over 120 specific applications that these new AI models open up for the company’s associates and customers. Such applications include the generation of software program code or powerful chatbots and voicebots to support technicians or interact with consumers. Another is AskBosch, the in-house AI-assisted search engine launched at the end of 2023. It offers faster natural-language access to a wide variety of data sources – sources scattered over the intranet, say. In addition to externally available data, AskBosch also includes internal data sources, so Bosch associates can research information specific to the company. Generative AI also ensures greater speed in manufacturing: in initial projects in two Bosch plants in Germany, generative AI creates synthetic images in order to develop and scale AI solutions for optical inspection and optimize existing AI models. Bosch expects that this will reduce the time needed for planning, launching, and ramping up AI applications from the current six-to-twelve months to just a few weeks. Following successful piloting, this service for generating synthetic data is to be offered to all Bosch locations. 2024 Bosch Tech Compass: setting the pace in the use of AI As AI is used in more and more areas of life, professional development is becoming increasingly important: 58 percent of respondents to the Bosch Tech Compass are convinced of this. This opinion is particularly prevalent in USA at 63 percent (Germany: 54 percent, China: 52 percent). Here, too, Bosch is setting the pace in the use of artificial intelligence and is getting its associates on board. In 2019, Bosch launched a training program, initially aimed at bringing 30,000 associates up to speed on the subject of AI. Up to now, some 28,000 associates have taken part in the program. Like the Bosch AI code of ethics, which sets ethical guidelines for dealing with artificial intelligence, this program has been supplemented with content about generative AI. For all the results of the 2024 Bosch Tech Compass, click here . About the survey: For the representative survey, people aged 18 and over in seven countries (Brazil, China, Germany, France, India, the U.K., and the U.S.) were polled online on behalf of Robert Bosch GmbH by the market researchers Gesellschaft für Innovative Marktforschung mbH (GIM) in December 2023. In Germany, France, and the U.K., at least 1,000 people were polled per country; in Brazil, China, India, and the U.S., it was at least 2,000 people each. The random samples are representative of their respective countries in terms of region, gender, and age (Brazil, Germany, France, U.K., U.S.: 18 to 69 years / China, India: 18 to 59 years).

Better than a pair of eyes: Bosch camera with AI for driver assistance and autom ...

30.08.2019

Press release

Automated mobility

Better than a pair of eyes: Bosch camera with AI for driver assistance and autom ...

Stuttgart, Germany, and Yokohama, Japan – Automated driving technology is gradually providing more and more assistance to the driver – with the future aim of the car being able to take complete control. But there is more to it than that: "We want to make cars better drivers than people, and in this way to increase road safety. In other words, technology has to work more reliably than people," says the Bosch management board member Harald Kroeger. That presents a major challenge, particularly in terms of surround sensing. Only if it knows exactly, and at all times, what is going on around it can an automated vehicle choose the right, and above all safe, driving strategy. Bosch uses various technologies for surround sensing, including ultrasound, radar, and video. When it comes to structure and function, cameras come closest to the human eye, which is why they will be such invaluable assets for automated driving, and indeed why they already play a key role in driver assistance. Bosch has now succeeded in taking automotive camera technology to a new level. This new Bosch technology is set to debut in vehicles in 2019. The combination of its unique multi-path approach and artificial intelligence (AI) for object recognition will make surround sensing far more reliable, and road traffic safer. Bosch aims to be the market leader, and the measure of all things in camera technology. We want to make cars better drivers than people, and in this way to increase road safety. In other words, technology has to work more reliably than people....Bosch management board member Harald Kroeger Human drivers: looking but failing to see Cars with driver assistance, automatic emergency braking systems, and automated driving capability must be able to see all objects in their surroundings. On top of that, they must be able to detect in a flash if an object is relevant for their driving strategy. And just as quickly, they have to determine what their reaction to relevant objects should be. Should they brake, swerve, or continue on their path? Unlike the human eye, the new Bosch MPC3 mono video camera has been optimized to handle such decisions. For humans, looking is one thing, but actually recognizing what our eyes see is another matter. Our eyes may be marvels of nature, but we have our weaknesses when it comes to visual perception. Just because we see something does not mean that we recognize and understand it. Many drivers who are involved in accidents say that they had been looking in the right direction but failed to spot the other party. It is estimated that up to 50 percent of road traffic collisions are attributable to this phenomenon. The new Bosch camera is superior to the human eye in this respect, not least because it never gets tired, and works just as well after hours of driving as during the first kilometer. Bosch technology makes new and improved driver assistance systems possible The new technology’s great strength lies in its robust object recognition, enabled by Bosch’s multi-path approach. This also makes use of artificial intelligence. For example, Bosch engineers have taught the camera to reliably detect if the edge of the road is passable, even in the absence of road markings. This camera intelligence is based on Bosch know-how and integrated into a chip, known as V3H, made by the Japanese company Renesas. It can also improve legacy driver assistance systems and extend their application range. For instance, it could enhance automatic emergency braking systems to prevent vehicles hitting various types of animals. It could also make emergency braking more reliable, since the camera can recognize pedestrians even when they are partially concealed. The Bosch innovation also improves road-sign recognition. The new Bosch camera features optical character recognition that reliably reads text and numbers on road signs, and presents this information to the driver on a dashboard display. The camera with AI won an award in a company-internal innovation contest.

CES 2019: Bosch extends its position as a leading IoT company

07.01.2019

Press release

Smart Home

CES 2019: Bosch extends its position as a leading IoT company

Las Vegas, NV – More and more, the internet of things (IoT) is changing our world. At CES 2019 in Las Vegas, Bosch is showing what it is already capable of today. From a concept for a shuttle vehicle that makes a new kind of mobility tangible, to fridges with connectivity that give advice on food storage, to smart lawn mowers that learn by doing – the spectrum of solutions Bosch is presenting at the world’s largest consumer electronics show is huge. “Bosch recognized the huge opportunities of the IoT early on. We have been actively shaping the connected world for nearly ten years now,” says the Bosch board of management member Dr. Markus Heyn. “Today, we are a leading IoT company. Step by step, we have extended our software and IT expertise.” Using its own IoT cloud, the company has already carried out more than 270 projects in field such as mobility, smart homes, smart cities, and agriculture. The number of sensors and devices connected over the Bosch IoT Suite has risen nearly 40 percent since last year, and now stands at 8.5 million.One of the keys to further growth and new business opportunities on the internet of things is artificial intelligence (AI). This is also a field in which Bosch is playing a decisive part in driving developments. “We will best be able to unlock the potential of the IoT if we combine it with AI, and take our IoT and AI activities forward in parallel,” Heyn says. In his view, the relationship between the two fields is complementary: “The IoT needs intelligence. The use of connected things to gather data can be a decisive boost for the development of AI. It is only through AI that connected things become intelligent and learn to draw their own conclusions. Above all, we aim to achieve concrete improvements in people’s real, everyday lives – things such as more time, more security, more efficiency, and more convenience.” Here, Heyn cites the example of video-based fire detection: by using intelligent image analysis, security cameras are able to identify fires within a few seconds, even before the system’s sensors detect heat and smoke. In this way, fires can be detected considerably earlier than with conventional fire or smoke alarm systems. This saves valuable minutes in which lives can be saved.A second key to success on the path to the IoT age is partnerships. Here, Bosch is opting for a mix of traditional and new players. The alliance recently agreed with the Canadian platform provider Mojio has already resulted in the first integrated IoT platform for connected vehicles: in the event of an accident, a special Bosch algorithm can identify where and when the accident happened, and how severe it is. Via the Mojio cloud, the data are transmitted without any delay to the Bosch emergency service center, which automatically sends an emergency call to local rescue services. At the same time, a message is sent to a predetermined list of recipients, either as a text message or via the Mojio app. “Together with Mojio, we are connecting vehicles directly with the cloud. This means rescue services can get to the scene of an accident even faster than before,” says Mike Mansuetti, the president of Bosch North America. From the middle of next year, the IoT emergency solution will be available for nearly a million drivers in North America and Europe. IoT on the roads: Bosch presents connected mobility of the future With the concept shuttle vehicle it developed in-house, Bosch is celebrating a world first at CES. In this vehicle, the company is its presenting solutions for the automation, connectivity, and electrification of vehicles, and is giving visitors the chance to experience at first hand a new kind of mobility: driverless shuttles, which will soon be a feature on the streets of the world’s cities. “This will pay into our vision of mobility that is as emissions-free, accident-free, and stress-free as possible,” Heyn says. For shuttle-based mobility such as this, Bosch will be supplying not only components and systems, but also a complete range of mobility services, such as reservation, sharing, and connectivity platforms, as well as parking and recharging services. Bosch believes that such connected services are essential for the shuttle-based mobility of the future. The forecast market volume for these services is also high: while it was 47 billion euros in 2017, it is estimated that it will be as much as 140 billion euros by 2022 (source: PwC). Bosch also wants to have a share in this, and aims for significant double-digit growth with the solutions it offers. For Heyn, there is no doubt: “In the future, every vehicle on the road will make use of Bosch digital services. We will consolidate them into a smart, seamlessly connected ecosystem.”One of the final obstacles for putting shuttle-based mobility into practice is the automation of vehicles in complex urban environments. Here, Bosch believes partnerships are the answer: In the second half of this year, San José in California’s Silicon Valley is set to become the pilot city for testing a fully automated, driverless ridesharing service provided by Bosch and Daimler. The three parties have already signed a letter of intent to this effect. With their development alliance, Bosch and Daimler want to improve urban traffic flows, enhance road safety, and provide an important building block for the traffic of the future. Their aim is to develop a driving system for fully automated driverless driving (SAE level 4/5) that is ready for production by the beginning of the next decade. IoT in the home: connected appliances make home owners’ lives noticeably easier It’s not just on the roads that connected products and services that make user’s lives easier are in demand. “We’re working on the idea of a connected home, and on appliances that think autonomously and understand what users want,” Heyn says. At CES, for example, the company is presenting a new function for web-enabled fridges that can recognize types of food and provide recommendations on storage. The interior camera automatically recognizes some 60 kinds of fruits and vegetables and suggests the ideal place to store them by means of an app. As a result, food is stored in the best possible way, stays fresh for longer, and doesn’t have to be thrown away so often. Another new development is the PAI projector, which can project a virtual user interface onto a kitchen counter top. An integrated 3D sensor captures any hand movements, allowing touch-screen operation of the interface. In this way, users can conveniently call up recipes online and make phone calls over the internet while they are cooking and baking. Designed especially for the kitchen environment, PAI does not have to be used with as much care as a smartphone or tablet. Even with sticky fingers, the projector can still be controlled perfectly. PAI is set to debut in China in February 2019, to be followed by market launch in the United States. Bosch is also presenting the Indego S+, its new robot lawn mower with internet connectivity, at CES. It is one of the first robot lawn mowers in the market to offer voice control by Amazon Alexa. It is also the only robot lawn mower that can use weather forecasts on the web to automatically decide when best to mow the lawn again. Bosch is using artificial intelligence to improve the way its robot lawn mower recognizes obstacles on the lawn by evaluating data such as motor flow, acceleration, motor speed, and direction. “We are using AI to make lawn care even easier and more convenient. Our vision is an Indego that adapts to its garden in order to mow the lawn perfectly every time,” Heyn says. IoT #LikeABosch: Bosch launches digital IoT campaign Bosch is also using CES 2019 to premiere its new IoT image campaign. The main plank of the campaign is a hip-hop video clip featuring a protagonist who is a savvy IoT user. Bosch is entering new territory with its “Like a Bosch” campaign; the decidedly different approach and tone marks a new departure for the company, which was founded in 1886.This PR move capitalizes on a rash of “like a boss” videos and memes that have gone viral on the internet, attracting tens of millions of clicks. These videos feature everyday people who stage bizarre stunts or find their way out of predicaments with technical finesse. The IoT image campaign changes a few letters in order to put a fresh spin on this internet phenomenon. The protagonist in the Bosch video is a young man who is always on top of things, thanks to connected solutions from Bosch. Smartphone in hand, he operates his car, lawn mower, or coffee machine in a cool, smart, and confident way – he’s in charge of things “like a Bosch.”

Bosch and Daimler: Metropolis in California to become a pilot city for automated ...

11.07.2018

Press release

Automated mobility

Bosch and Daimler: Metropolis in California to become a pilot city for automated ...

Stuttgart – Bosch and Daimler are speeding up the development of fully-automated and driverless driving (SAE Level 4/5) in the city and are decisively setting the course. The partners have chosen California as the pilot location for the first test fleet. In the second half of 2019, Bosch and Daimler will offer customers a shuttle service with automated vehicles on selected routes in a Californian metropolis. Daimler Mobility Services is envisaged as the operator of this test fleet and the app-based mobility service. The pilot project will demonstrate how mobility services such as car sharing (car2go), ride-hailing (mytaxi) and multi-modal platforms (moovel) can be intelligently connected to shape the future of mobility. In addition, the partners have decided on the US technology company Nvidia as the supplier of the artificial intelligence platform as part of their control unit network. Developing automated driving to a level ready for series production is like a decathlon. It’s not enough to be good in one or two areas. Like us, you have to master all disciplines....Dr. Stephan Hönle, Senior Vice President Business Unit Automated Driving at Bosch For the joint development of a driving system for fully-automated and driverless vehicles, Bosch and Daimler rely on their automotive expertise accumulated over many decades to bring mature and safe innovations to market. Both companies are guided by a shared philosophy: “The decisive factor is to introduce a safe, dependable and mature system,” says Dr. Michael Hafner, Head of Automated Driving at Daimler AG. “Safety has the highest priority, and is the constant theme of all aspects and development stages on our way to the start of series production. If in doubt, thoroughness comes before speed.” “Developing automated driving to a level ready for series production is like a decathlon”, according to Dr. Stephan Hönle, Senior Vice President Business Unit Automated Driving at Robert Bosch GmbH. “It’s not enough to be good in one or two areas. Like us, you have to master all disciplines. Only then will we succeed in bringing automated driving to the roads and the city safely.” Evaluation of sensor data within milliseconds A decisive factor for fully-automated and driverless driving in an urban environment is the reliable recognition of the vehicle’s surroundings with the aid of various sensors. Analyzing and interpreting the variety of incoming data and translating them into driving commands within a very short time requires enormous computing power – the fully-automated, driverless vehicle will be a mobile super-computer. At the same time, fully-automated, driverless driving in the city requires a versatile, redundant systems architecture and the highest level of functional safety. To achieve this level of safety, the necessary computing operations are performed in parallel in different circuits. This means that the system has instant recourse to these parallel computing results when necessary. For their driving system, Bosch and Daimler thus rely on a control unit network made up of several individual control units. The US technology company Nvidia supplies the platform required for this, which can run the Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms generated by Bosch and Daimler for the vehicle’s movement. The network of control units collates the data from all sensors with radar, video, lidar and ultrasound technology (sensor data fusion), evaluates them within milliseconds and plans the movements of the vehicle. All in all, the control unit network has a computing capacity of hundreds of trillion operations per second. That’s as much as several S-Class vehicles together could reach just a few years ago. Metropolis in California will be a pilot city for automated test fleet The control unit network will also be used in the fleet vehicles which Daimler and Bosch will put on the roads of California in the second half of 2019. Not only that: Both partners will offer customers an automated shuttle service on select routes in a city located in the San Francisco Bay in Silicon Valley. The test operation will provide information about how fully-automated and driverless vehicles can be integrated into a multi-modal transport network. Many cities face numerous challenges that are increasingly burdening the existing transport system. The test is to show how this new technology might be a solution to these challenges. Driverless driving makes urban mobility more attractive With their development cooperation on fully-automated and driverless driving in urban environments which began in April 2017, Bosch and Daimler aim to improve the flow of traffic in cities, enhance safety on the road and provide an important building block for the way traffic will work in the future. The technology will, among other things, boost the attraction of car sharing. In addition, it will allow people to make the best possible use of their time in the vehicle, and open up new mobility opportunities for people without a driver’s licence, for example. The vehicle comes to the driver, not the driver to the vehicle. Within a defined city area, users can conveniently order a car-sharing car or a vehicle that drives by without a driver. The project especially combines the overall vehicle and mobility expertise of one of the world’s leading premium manufacturer with the systems and hardware expertise of one of the world’s largest suppliers. The ensuing synergies’ purpose is to introduce the new technology early and fully validated. Bosch and Daimler employees share the same office space Bosch and Daimler employees work together in teams in two regions: In the greater Stuttgart area in Germany and around Sunnyvale in Silicon Valley to the south of San Francisco in the USA. Employees from both companies share the same office space. This ensures rapid communication across working disciplines and short decision-making paths. At the same time they have access to the entire know-how of the colleagues in the mother companies. The partners are equally financing the development work. The personnel in this cooperation are jointly developing the concepts and algorithms for the fully-automated, driverless drive system. Daimler's task is to bring the drive system into the car. To this end, the company is providing the necessary development vehicles, test facilities and later the vehicles for the test fleet. Bosch is responsible for the components (sensors, actuators and control units) specified during the development work. For test purposes the partners use their laboratories and test rigs, plus their respective test sites in Immendingen and Boxberg. Furthermore, since 2014 Mercedes-Benz has approval to test automated vehicles in the Sunnyvale/California region. The company also has comparable approval for the Sindelfingen/Böblingen region since 2016. Bosch was the world’s first automotive supplier to test automated driving on public roads in Germany and in the US in early 2013.