Bosch invests in software alliances. Single control for Adas and infotainment
Developments. From the agreements with Volkswagen and Qualcomm a push towards innovation in on-board systems and autonomous driving. President Hartung: 'We will never produce cars, we will remain a tech company that provides products and services to manufacturers'.
by our correspondent Lello Naso
3' min read
3' min read
"Bosch will never produce cars'. Stephan Hartung, president of the German multinational, at the company's Tech Day, responds politely but peremptorily to a Slovakian journalist's direct question. 'The company's mission will not change,' Hartung reiterates, 'we will remain a tech company that provides products and services to car manufacturers. Even if the automotive world will be hit by the revolution of the electric motor and software solutions, destined to become Bosch's new frontier in expanding the range of services provided to customers. 'Already for some time,' explained Hartung, 'Bosch has been a software company. We can write the codes in the products we supply to customers and provide updates throughout the life of the products. We have 48 thousand employees in the software area, 42 thousand of whom work in mobility. Of these 12 thousand are engineers and programmers.
The potential for development is enormous. According to a McKinsey Report, the global market for automotive software and electronics will reach a turnover of USD 462 billion by 2030. In 2023, Bosch's software business had a turnover of 56.2 billion, which is set to grow to 80 billion by 2029, a growth rate of 15% per year.
"Software will revolutionise the industry, starting with automotive," said Hartung. "Cars will be integrated into the digital world and will be able to undergo continuous updates," reiterated Markus Heyn, president of Bosch's Mobility business division. "To install the new features," Heyn explained, "direct updates will suffice, without going to the workshop."
Not to mention that the mix of software and artificial intelligence is set to produce a further leap forward for the industry. Provided that alliances and synergies can be built between companies. "But we have to collaborate among equals," Hartung explains. 'It is difficult for one company to manage everything on its own. Open-source software is a useful way of pooling expertise, saving costs and creating standard solutions."
A path that Bosch has taken since 2021 with a series of alliances based on the development of individual products. The most important, Automotive Driving Alliance (Ada), with Volkswagen, aimed at the development of autonomous driving. More than 1,500 engineers and developers are engaged full-time in a project that has generated an autonomous driving programme that has reached Level 2 Plus and is in advanced testing on the roads around the Renningen research centre. Ada's engineers and developers, through Volkswagen vehicles sold in Europe, radar, gps and video cameras have collected more than 120 billion ounces of data and created a tracking system calibrated to the driving habits of individual road sections.
