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8 Media
Commercial vehicle innovation enabler: Bosch brings advanced solutions to the ne ...

17.04.2019

Press release

Connected mobility

Commercial vehicle innovation enabler: Bosch brings advanced solutions to the ne ...

Scottsdale, Arizona – Nikola Motor Company showcased its hydrogen-electric powered semi-truck, the Nikola Two, live in action for the first time to the general public at its Nikola World event. Bosch technology and expertise helped Nikola to realize the fully functional Nikola Two hydrogen-electric truck with industry-ready heavy-duty truck components and systems. The technology and system approach is adaptable for use in Nikola’s full line of vehicles, including the Nikola One Sleeper Cab and the Nikola Tre, a hydrogen-electric truck for European markets. Bosch has been our innovation partner to help make our vision a reality....Trevor Milton, Nikola founder and CEO The Nikola trucks feature innovations in automation, connectivity and electrification enabled with Bosch’s assistance. The supplier of technology and services offers solutions for commercial vehicles to improve efficiency and safety in logistics. To enable the distinctive Nikola approach, engineering teams from Bosch locations in the United States and Germany contributed more than 220,000 hours into the development of the Nikola trucks. “This has been a two-and-a-half year cooperation targeted at implementing advanced technology into a totally new and unique approach to trucking with the highest levels of engineering excellence,” said Jason Roycht, vice president and regional business unit leader, Commercial Vehicles & Off-Road for Bosch in North America. “We’ve learned from each other and together pushed ourselves to achieve what seemed to everyone else to be impossible. The Nikola Two is not just a simple evolution of today’s heavy duty truck. It’s a revolution in both sophisticated control and design.” “Bosch has been our innovation partner to help make our vision a reality,” said Trevor Milton, founder and CEO of Nikola Motor Company. “We look for partners who provide us expertise and world-class solutions, but also ones that are willing to dream alongside us.” This has been a two-and-a-half year cooperation targeted at implementing advanced technology into a totally new and unique approach to trucking with the highest levels of engineering excellence....Jason Roycht, vice president and regional business unit leader, Commercial Vehicles & Off-Road for Bosch in North America The brain of the future – engineered by Nikola and Bosch The Nikola truck is more than just a fuel cell vehicle; it’s a rolling super computer. Bosch systems, software and engineering expertise have helped Nikola to build the brains of its Nikola Two super truck. One of the key elements of Nikola’s advanced system is the Bosch Vehicle Control Unit (VCU) , which provides higher computing power for advanced functions while reducing the number of standalone units. The VCU enables future innovations by providing a scalable platform for the highly complex electric/electronic (E/E) architecture needed to support the advanced features of the Nikola truck. The Nikola family of trucks will be connected with an advanced and secure operating system that provides real-time, over-the-air updates and monitoring. The commercial vehicle powertrain reimagined The essence of the Nikola truck lineup is a new commercial vehicle powertrain achieved thanks to a development partnership between Nikola and Bosch. The two organizations have reimagined the powertrain – and the vehicle chassis integrated together with it – from the ground up. The fuel-cell system designed to deliver benchmark vehicle range was custom-designed together by Nikola and Bosch. The two organizations also worked in tandem to develop the first true dual-motor commercial-vehicle eAxle for a long-haul truck. The eAxle features Bosch rotors and stators, and Bosch has also contributed functional safety efforts throughout the truck. Mirrorless and keyless - Bosch technology pervades the Nikola trucks Bosch technology is also prevalent in other areas of the Nikola trucks. Nikola’s vehicles will be missing one standard feature of previous class-8 trucks: side mirrors. In the place of the conventional main and wide-angle mirrors is a camera system, known as Mirror Cam System , which offers drivers a digital side and rear view from the truck cab. Two cameras, fitted left and right in place of traditional mirrors, feed real-time images to high-resolution displays mounted inside the cab. The system, developed by Bosch and Mekra Lang, adjusts the monitor display to match the driving situation digitally. It captures both rear-view fields of vision of a CV mirror with just one camera lens on each side of the vehicle cab. In addition to increasing safety, compact digital cameras instead of mirrors offer aerodynamic advantages as the cameras are considerably smaller than mirrors and therefore reduce drag. Fleet operators will be able to digitally manage vehicle keys for the Nikola trucks in their fleet thanks to the Perfectly Keyless system from Bosch. Freight and commercial vehicle rental companies can use a smartphone app to give their drivers access to specific fleet vehicles and to flexibly manage who has access and when. Sensors on the Nikola vehicles will connect with an app on a driver’s smartphone so that when the driver approaches the vehicle, Perfectly Keyless recognizes the smartphone, identifies the unique security key assigned to the driver’s phone, and unlocks the door. As soon as the driver moves away from the truck again, the vehicle is automatically securely locked. Nikola’s trucks are equipped for driver assistance and future automation thanks in part to the Bosch Servotwi n electrohydraulic steering system. The steering system will enable driver assistance systems that actively support the driver to enhance driving comfort and improve safety. On the Nikola vehicles, the Servotwin will help to enable features such as lane-keeping assistance, side-wind compensation and traffic jam assist. The system also provides a key building block for the rollout of automated features in the future.

Connected mobility
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.”

Smart Home
Bosch and Daimler: San José targeted to become pilot city for an automated on-de ...

08.11.2018

Press release

Automated mobility

Bosch and Daimler: San José targeted to become pilot city for an automated on-de ...

Stuttgart/San José – Located on the southern shore of San Francisco Bay in Silicon Valley, and with more than one million inhabitants, San José is the third biggest city in California. It is planned to be the pilot city for trials, targeted to begin during the second half of 2019, of the highly and fully automated driving (SAE Level 4/5) on-demand ride-hailing service recently announced by Bosch and Daimler. The three parties have signed a memorandum of understanding to pursue and finalize this activity. Using automated Mercedes-Benz S-Class vehicles, Bosch and Daimler propose to offer the service to a selected user community in the San Carlos/Stevens Creek corridor between downtown and west San José. With its population expected to grow 40 percent in the next two decades, the metropolitan area faces growing transportation challenges. Moreover, San José wants to prepare itself for a future in which autonomous cars hit the streets.“The pilot project is an opportunity to explore how autonomous vehicles can help us better meet future transportation needs,” says Sam Liccardo, mayor of San José. “Since many years we consequently push autonomous driving. With this pilot we will generate valuable insights to connect fully automated vehicles in the best way with users of future mobility services,” says Dr. Michael Hafner, Vice President Drive Technologies and Automated Driving at Daimler AG. “We have to rethink urban transportation. Automated driving will help us complete the picture of future urban traffic,” says Dr. Stephan Hönle, senior vice president of the Automated Driving business unit at Robert Bosch GmbH. The on-demand ride-hailing service app operated by Daimler Mobility Services will demonstrate how mobility services such as car sharing (car2go), ride-hailing (mytaxi), and multi-modal platforms (moovel) can be intelligently connected. The test operation will provide information about how highly and fully automated vehicles can be integrated into a multi-modal transportation network. The intent is to provide a seamless digital experience, in which a selected user community will have the opportunity to hail a self-driving car, monitored by a safety driver, from a designated pick-up location and drive automatically to their destination. Automated vehicles make urban mobility more attractive With their joint development work on highly and fully automated driving (SAE level 4/5) in urban environments, Bosch and Daimler aim to improve the flow of traffic in cities, enhance road safety, and provide an important building block for the way traffic will work in the future. Among other things, the technology will boost the attraction of car sharing. Without compromising driving safety, it will allow people to make the best possible use of the time they spend in their vehicles, and open up new mobility opportunities for people without a driver’s license. Bosch and Daimler associates share the same office space Bosch and Daimler associates involved in the development project work together in teams in two regions: in the greater Stuttgart area in Germany and, in the United States, around Sunnyvale in Silicon Valley between San José and San Francisco. Since they share the same office space, rapid communication across working disciplines is ensured, and decision-making paths are short. At the same time, they can draw on the combined know-how of their colleagues in the parent companies. The two companies’ associates are jointly developing the concepts and algorithms for the highly and fully automated drive system. Daimler’s task is to bring the drive system into the car. The company is providing the necessary development vehicles, test facilities, and vehicles for the test fleet. Bosch is responsible for the components specified during the development work, such as sensors, actuators, and control units. For test purposes, Bosch and Daimler use their laboratories and test rigs, plus their respective test sites in Germany. Since obtaining its Autonomous Vehicle Testing Permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles in 2014, Mercedes-Benz has been testing automated vehicles in the Sunnyvale/California region. And since 2016, it has had similar approval for the greater Stuttgart area in Germany. In early 2013, Bosch was the world’s first automotive supplier to test automated driving (SAE level 3) on public roads in Germany and the United States.

Automated mobility
In automated vehicles, the seat-of-the-pants feel comes from the Bosch cloud

25.07.2018

Press release

Automated mobility

In automated vehicles, the seat-of-the-pants feel comes from the Bosch cloud

Stuttgart, Germany – Haptic sensation when driving is something that shouldn’t be underestimated. What condition is the road in, how well are the tires gripping? Having or developing a feeling for this can help drivers handle their cars appropriately and safely. Race drivers already have a word for it: seat-of-the-pants feel. They mean the contact between the seat of their pants and their driving seat, which allows them to feel the state of the road surface. Automated vehicles also urgently need information about road conditions. Unfortunately, however, they don’t have any feeling for such conditions – or haven’t up to now. Bosch has developed a system that gives automated vehicles seat-of-the-pants feel. “Wet roads, snow, ice – with our predictive road-condition services, we alert to hazards before critical situations can develop. We are helped here by the weather data provided by our partner Foreca. This means an automated vehicle will know exactly where it can drive autonomously, and how,” says the Bosch management board member Dr. Dirk Hoheisel. With our predictive road-condition services, we alert to hazards before critical situations can develop....Dr Dirk Hoheisel Foreca is one of the world’s leading providers of weather information, with two decades of experience in predicting road weather conditions. “Combining the expertise of Foreca and Bosch will lead to a new era of road-condition forecasting. Unlike weather forecasts in the media, the Bosch road-condition services take multiple possible forecast scenarios into consideration,” says Petri Marjava, Foreca’s sales director. The road-condition services boost driving safety and smoothness. In addition, the availability of automated driving functions is increased. The Bosch services package is to be rolled out worldwide in 2020, initially on the basis of weather data. As more and more connected cars appear on the roads, the service will be augmented by vehicle data. Automated vehicles adjust their speed in good time Up to the highly automated SAE level 4, the decision as to whether a car can assume the task of driving depends on factors such as road type, speed range, and environmental conditions. In future automated vehicles, this decision will also be based on the predictive road-condition services provided by Bosch. Thanks to their help, the automated vehicle will know in good time what environmental conditions to expect. This means it will have plenty of time to adapt its driving style, instead of having to hand over the driving task to the driver at the first sign of impaired road conditions, however minor. If the vehicle’s route takes it through rain, it will adapt its speed well in advance to a level that excludes any risk of aquaplaning and allows it to stop safely at any time. Whatever the SAE automation level, the result is a safe drive that is also smooth and comfortable. Driving automatically, whenever and wherever possible For its predictive road-condition services, Bosch is relying on a multiphase concept. By the time of its planned launch in 2020, it cannot be expected that there will be a sufficiently large proportion of connected vehicles on the roads. Bosch estimates it would take some 20 million connected cars to cover the roughly 80,000 kilometers of freeway in Europe alone. For this reason, road-weather forecasts will initially be the only reliable source of information for drawing sound conclusions about road conditions, especially in rural areas where there is less traffic. Bosch will get the constantly updated global road-weather data it needs for this from Foreca. Bosch’s thorough examination of several leading providers showed that the Finnish weather experts were the most accurate road-weather data provider globally. The more precisely hazardous conditions can be predicted and localized, the easier it will be to keep the availability of automated driving functions to a maximum. Thanks to a worldwide reference measuring fleet and machine learning methods, Bosch and Foreca have jointly been able to optimize the safety and availability of the road-weather models. In this way, the two companies have achieved a safety standard of the kind that will be necessary for life-critical systems such as automated driving. ESP interventions allow friction coefficient to be determined As a sufficient number of connected vehicles take to the roads, Bosch will supplement its predictive road-condition services with vehicle data. These data will include information stored on the CAN bus, the vehicle’s central data network, such as the temperatures measured inside and outside the vehicle, and whether the windshield wipers are in use. Thanks to connectivity, this data will not remain unused in the vehicle, but will find its way into the Bosch cloud via the respective automaker’s back-end server. In addition, Bosch will evaluate the regular interventions by the ESP anti-skid system. Using mathematical methods, engineers can measure the friction coefficient of the road surface at each individual wheel, as well as the status of each wheel. When all these data are combined and intelligently evaluated, the result is a package of smart Bosch services – and the comforting feeling of being in safe hands.

Automated mobility
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.

Automated mobility
Manufacturing hub Mexico: Bosch plans smart plant for electronic components

17.04.2018

Press release

Business/economy

Manufacturing hub Mexico: Bosch plans smart plant for electronic components

Mexico City, Mexico, and Stuttgart, Germany – Bosch, a leading global provider of technology and services, is investing 100 million euros (120 million U.S. dollars) in a new plant in Celaya. The company plans to build a new smart factory for electronic components in the central Mexican city by 2020. The investment underlines the importance of this year's HANNOVER MESSE partner country for the company: “Bosch is committed to Mexico. The country is and will remain an important market and a hub for our global manufacturing and development network,” said Stefan Hartung , member of the Bosch board of management, ahead of the international industrial trade fair. The goal is to create more than 1,200 additional jobs at the new location in Celaya in the coming years. In total, the Bosch Group employs around 16,000 associates and is active with all four of its business divisions in Mexico. In 2016, the company generated sales of 1.1 billion euros in the country Bosch is committed to Mexico. The country is and will remain an important market and a hub for our global manufacturing and development network....Stefan Hartung, member of the Bosch board of management Industry 4.0 as a competitive advantage in Mexico The Latin American emerging market has become highly industrialized in recent years, driven mainly by the automotive industry. In 2017 alone, nearly 3.8 million vehicles were manufactured in Mexico. In order to increase efficiency and competitiveness as a leading global manufacturing location, Mexico is increasingly focusing on the use of Industry 4.0. Bosch is playing a part in this. “We are planning to make the new manufacturing facility in Celaya a smart factory with state-of-the-art, intelligent production lines,” Hartung said. For example, the plant will employ a manufacturing execution system (MES), which automatically collects data and shares production information in real time. This makes possible both preventive maintenance of machinery and higher product quality. The system also digitally connects the plant to the Bosch Group’s global manufacturing network. “By mid-2019, manufacturing at nearly all Bosch plants in Mexico will be equipped with our intelligent control system,” said René Schlegel, president of the Bosch Group in Mexico. In total, Bosch currently operates ten manufacturing locations around the country and has already introduced the use of smart technologies, for example at its Mobility Solutions sites in Toluca and Juárez. As a leading provider of Industry 4.0 solutions, the Bosch Group also sees local business opportunities in Mexico. Increasing demand for connected mobility The new approximately 21,000-square-meter facility in Celaya, which is located in the state of Guanajuato, will manufacture electronic control units (ECUs) for the American market. These are key components for connected mobility. Alongside Juárez, Celaya will be home to the Automotive Electronics division’s second plant in Mexico. “With the new location, we are responding to the increasing demand for electronic components in the American market,” René Schlegel said. With a total surface area of 170,000 square meters, the site will have capacity for further expansion in the future. In addition, the plan is to build a logistics center for Mexico on the adjacent property, which will also serve as a warehouse for the new plant. Bosch strengthens presence in North America With the investment in a new location, Bosch is continuing its long-term expansion in North America. Over the past five years, a total of around 2.6 billion euros has been spent on strengthening the company’s local presence. In Mexico, where Bosch has been active since 1955, the company opened a new manufacturing facility for driving safety systems in Aguascalientes in 2016. At the end of 2017, a plant for steering systems in Querétaro went into operation. The country is also gaining in significance as a development location: since 2014, Bosch has been operating a center for software development and engineering services for the American market in Guadalajara. A large proportion of the investment sum also went to the U.S. There, the Mobility Solutions plants in Charleston and Anderson are currently being expanded, and at the beginning of this month, Bosch opened a new research center in Sunnyvale in California’s Silicon Valley. Bosch at HANNOVER MESSE: the factory of the future – today! What will the factory of the future look like? How can people, robots, and machines work together? What role do 5G, data, software, and services play? Where can artificial intelligence (AI) be put to use? At Hannover Messe 2018 (hall 17, booth A40), Bosch is bringing the factory of the future to life – today. Entitled “Now, next, beyond: factory of the future,” the technology company’s 1,300-square-meter showcase demonstrates what it offers today (now), and what solutions it is developing for tomorrow (next) and the future (beyond). The main attractions are 1.5-meter-tall mobile robotic figures that give a Pixar-like face to Bosch’s connected-factory assistants. Another highlight is a football table that improves its soccer abilities with every game and every new opponent – thanks to AI.

Business/economy
Bosch technology enables redundancy needed for automated driving

15.01.2018

Press release

Automated mobility

Bosch technology enables redundancy needed for automated driving

DETROIT – Without redundancy, there is no automated driving. The promise of automated driving requires a mix of technological, societal and regulatory development and cooperation. The technology continues to advance thanks to sensors and software, but also thanks to redundancy. In order to realize fully-automated driving on the path to the accident-free future, redundancy in safety-critical systems such as braking and steering is an absolute.Bosch is actively developing and bringing to market redundant braking solutions to support all levels of automation as defined by SAE. At the 2018 North American International Auto Show, the leading global supplier of technology and services will showcase its braking solutions, including redundant braking for automated driving. “The importance of redundancy for the rollout of automated driving goes beyond just the technological function as it ultimately will build confidence in consumers as they understand these systems are designed with deep levels of complexity to handle a variety of situations,” said Mike Mansuetti, president of Bosch in North America. SAE level 3 (conditional automation) vehicles will begin to hit the market as soon as 2018. For these vehicles, a human driver is still necessary, but safety-critical functions may be completely shifted to the vehicle under certain traffic or environmental conditions. Drivers must still remain present, but will need a certain amount of time to realize that an intervention is necessary. Redundant functions ensure that all safety-critical functions continue during this time span, even in the rare case of a failure in the system. For SAE levels 4 and 5, the redundancy becomes even more critical as the time span increases without the driver in the loop. Bosch’s solution for a fail-degraded brake system (steering system and E/E architecture) is the combination of its electromechanical brake booster iBooster and ESC (Electronic Stability Control), also known as ESP (electronic stability program), systems. Both are independently capable of performing braking functions for the vehicle in the rare case of a single failure. The technological breakthrough of redundant braking was achieved by modifying one system element; the vacuum brake booster is replaced by an intelligent electro-mechanical booster, the iBooster. A conventional brake system today comprises two actuators: a vacuum brake booster and ESC unit. The redundant brake system is comprised of two actuators that are each able to decelerate the vehicle independent of the driver applying the brake pedal. Even if a failure occurs in the brake system, either actuator (iBooster or ESC) is able to avoid wheel lock-up by modulating the brake pressure, which maintains the ability to steer during deceleration. Bosch’s redundant brake system for automated driving was named a finalist for the 2018 Automotive News PACE (Premier Automotive Suppliers’ Contributions to Excellence) Award, which is acknowledged globally as a prestigious industry benchmark for automotive supplier innovation. Bosch was also honored with an eMove360° Award in the category of Automated Driving for the redundant braking technology. Redundant steering is also a key technology for automated driving and Bosch is leading in this area. At NAIAS 2017, Bosch introduced its Electric Power Steering (EPS) system with fail-operational function. The system, which enables either a driver or auto pilot system to make a safe stop in the rare case of a single failure, is a key requirement on the path to fully automated driving. Making automated driving a reality calls for profound understanding of all vehicle systems. Bosch has this expertise, and manufactures most of the key components itself – including radar, video, and ultrasonic sensors, brake control systems, electrical power-steering units, display instruments, and connectivity solutions inside and outside the vehicle. Bosch has more than 3,000 engineers around the world working to make automated driving a reality.

Automated mobility
CES 2018: Bosch sees future in smart-city business

08.01.2018

Press release

Business/economy

CES 2018: Bosch sees future in smart-city business

Las Vegas, NV – Urban populations are growing: according to the United Nations , roughly two-thirds of the global population will live in conurbations by 2050. In 2014, this figure was just one-half. Urbanization is increasing, and with it the challenges cities have to solve. Even today, therefore, there is a considerable need for smart solutions. Speaking at CES in Las Vegas, the Bosch management board member Stefan Hartung said: “We need a new conception of the city. One key factor here is technologies that make cities smart and worth living in. In the long run, cities without intelligence will not survive, but succumb to gridlock.”Bosch is working to equip cities and neighborhoods for the future, offering smart mobility, better air quality, more convenience, greater security, and many new services. In short, the aim is significantly better quality of life in cities and neighborhoods. “When it comes to smart cities, few other companies can match Bosch’s comprehensive portfolio, cross-domain knowledge, and outstanding expertise in sensors, software, and services – and all this from a single source,” Hartung said. From January 9 to 12, the supplier of technology and services will be presenting many new solutions that make cities smart at CES 2018, the world’s largest electronics show. These range from a new compact unit that measures and analyzes air quality in real time, to a system that digitally monitors river water levels and gives early warning of flood risks, to a completely automatic parking space service that makes drivers’ lives easier. For more business: the smart-city market is booming Some of the world’s major metropolises are already synonymous with the term “smart,” among them Barcelona, Seoul, and London. Across the globe, cities large and small are investing in smart-city technologies. According to a study on behalf of Bosch, the smart-city market will grow 19 percent each year between now and 2020, reaching a volume of 800 billion dollars (680 billion euros). Bosch believes this is a great business opportunity: “For a long time, the smart city was a vision. We’re helping make it reality. Bosch is in an excellent position to make the connected city a technological and commercial success,” Hartung said. The company is currently involved in 14 extensive smart-city projects in places such as San Francisco, Singapore, Tianjin, Berlin, and Stuttgart. Others are planned to follow. Within the past two years, the company has doubled its sales from cross-domain projects to nearly one billion euros, and this figure is set to rise further. For a long time, the smart city was a vision. We’re helping make it reality. Bosch is in an excellent position to make the connected city a technological and commercial success....Stefan Hartung, Bosch management board member In the Bay Area city of San Leandro, for example, the company has equipped roughly 5,000 streetlights with LEDs and supplied a system for remote management of the city’s street lighting. In this way, the lights are only switched on when they are actually needed. With this solution, San Leandro will be able to save roughly 8 million dollars over the next 15 years. At the Bosch CES press conference, Mike Mansuetti, the president of Bosch North America, said: “Whether cities are big or small, our smart solutions will help them save energy, and money too.” In the case of San Leandro and its 100,000 inhabitants, sensors can be used to measure and analyze air quality, and cameras can automatically re-route traffic in the event of congestion. For more connectivity: IoT and artificial intelligence The internet of things (IoT) has laid one of the main foundations for the connected city. The IoT is finding its way into all walks of life: a Gartner study predicts that some 230 million homes worldwide – roughly 15 percent of all homes – will be intelligently connected by 2020. Here as well, the potential is huge, with market volume estimated to reach 250 billion dollars annually by 2020. By the same year, more than 20 billion devices worldwide will be connected with each other – smoke detectors, burglar alarms, electricity meters, home appliances, and many more. “Bosch recognized this potential early on,” Hartung said. “Even now, more than half our electronic product classes are web-enabled – and the aim is for this to be 100 percent by 2020. Not only that: for each of our products, we want to offer accompanying services.” Another driver of the rapid development of smart cities is artificial intelligence (AI). Bosch intends to further expand its research in this field. Last year, the company opened a research center for artificial intelligence, which now employs some 100 associates in Renningen, Germany, Palo Alto, CA, and Bengaluru, India. By 2021, Bosch will invest some 300 million euros in expanding the center. The company anticipates that, ten years from now, scarcely any product will be conceivable without AI. For better air quality: Climo creates basis for targeted action Air quality is one of the greatest challenges cities face. Thanks to smart technologies, cities can take faster and more targeted action to improve it. However, this depends on accurate measurements. At CES 2018, Bosch is presenting a new solution that it developed together with Intel – the Climo microclimate monitoring system. Climo measures and analyzes 12 parameters that are important for air quality, including carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, temperature, and relative humidity. The appliance is one-hundredth the size of conventional systems – and one-tenth the cost. Climo won a CES Honoree Innovation Award in the “smart cities” category. For early warning: digital monitoring of rivers In many regions, climate change is resulting in unpredictable weather. Researchers expect that heavier rainfall will result in more frequent flash flooding. Up to now, mechanical devices have been used to measure river water levels. Hours may pass before these measurements become available for others. However, the flood monitoring system changes all this. In real time, it monitors the water level in rivers and other bodies of water close to cities, and warns of an impending flood. In a pilot project, Bosch is testing the new system on the Neckar river near Ludwigsburg, Germany. Ultrasonic sensor probes and cameras track changes in water level, speed, and throughput. The data is sent to the Bosch IoT Cloud for processing. Should critical thresholds be exceeded, the affected municipalities, residents, and business owners are alerted well in advance by text message. This gives them enough time to take precautions against flooding and flood-related damage. Among those interested in the solution are a number of Indian and South American municipalities that frequently have to combat flooding. For more time: connected parking Urban traffic will increase by roughly one-third by 2050 . Bosch is working to make tomorrow’s mobility free of accidents, stress, and emissions. At CES 2018, the company is presenting many solutions that lead toward this goal. Urban traffic plays a role in roughly half the smart-city projects Bosch is involved in. Parking is a particular focal point. U.S. drivers now spend more than 40 hours a year stuck in congestion, wasting some 160 billion dollars in the process. Of this time, roughly one-third is wasted on the search for parking alone. This is where Bosch can help: with its community-based parking, the company simplifies the search for a suitable space. As they drive by, cars automatically recognize and measure the size of the gaps between parked cars, transmitting the data in real time to a digital map. In this way, drivers can have themselves guided directly to free parking spaces. Bosch is already testing this service in German cities, including Stuttgart. This year, as many as 20 U.S. cities will follow, including Los Angeles, Miami, and Boston. In early 2018, moreover, Bosch and Daimler will be launching a new automated valet parking service. Cars in the Mercedes-Benz Museum parking garage in Stuttgart will look for a parking space and park themselves, without a driver. This cuts out stress, and makes more efficient use of parking lots – the same amount of space can accommodate up to 20 percent more vehicles. One factor making fully automated parking a reality is smart parking-garage infrastructure, which connects with the vehicle’s on-board software. Bosch recently won a Frost & Sullivan’s 2017 Technology Innovation Award for this driverless parking solution. For energy and cost savings: Bosch DC microgrids According to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) , cities account for roughly 75 percent of total global energy consumption. Forty percent of this is attributable to buildings alone. And the BP Energy Outlook 2035 estimates that global energy consumption will rise 30 percent by 2035. Bosch has many smart energy management solutions that can reduce power consumption. One of these is the Bosch DC (direct current) microgrid, which can be used to supply power to large buildings or building complexes. Since microgrids are generally fed by renewable sources, they are especially eco-friendly. DC microgrids consume up to 10 percent less energy than conventional power plants. Another major advantage is their self-sufficiency, which makes them a reliable source of power when a weather- or security-related outage affects the broader grid. Bosch at CES 2018: PRESS CONFERENCE: In Ballrooms B, C, and D, Mandalay Bay Hotel, Las Vegas South Convention Center, Level 2 , from 8:00 to 8:45 a.m. local time on Monday, Jan 8 . BOOTH: Tuesday to Friday, Jan 9–12 , in the Central Hall, booth #14028 FOLLOW the Bosch CES 2018 highlights on Twitter: #BoschCES PANELS WITH BOSCH EXPERTS: Tuesday, January 9, 1:30 – 3:15 p.m. (local time): “ Connect2Car: Next-Gen Automobility ” session with Kay Stepper, Vice President of Bosch in North America, head of driver assistance and automated driving, Las Vegas, Convention Center, North Hall, N256 Wednesday, Jan 10, 1:45–2:30 p.m. (local time): “ Connected Vehicles in Connected Ecosystems ” session with Mike Mansuetti, President Bosch North America, Smart Cities Conference, Westgate. Thursday, Jan 11, 11:30 a.m to 12:30 p.m. (local time): “ The Future of Robots at Work and Home ” session with Phil Roan, Senior Engineer Robotics, BSH Hausgeräte GmbH, Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall, N258

Business/economy