Autonomous car: how Bosch and Volkswagen intend to accelerate its advent

The constructor Volkswagen and the equipment supplier automobile Bosch announced on Tuesday the conclusion of a vast partnership to develop systems of autonomous driving, aiming to be marketed from 2023. The subsidiary software of Volkswagen, Cariad, will develop with Bosch features that allow drivers to temporarily take their hands off the wheel “, detailed the two German groups in a press release. Intended for models of Volkswagen, these systems will also be accessible to other manufacturers, customers of the equipment supplier, they added.

These will include so-called level 2 autonomous systems, which will allow the driver to momentarily let go of the steering wheel while remaining attentive, ” in the city, in the countryside and on the highway “. The two partners will also develop a level 3 system on the motorway. This level of autonomy, the most advanced currently, available in certain top-of-the-range cars, allows the driver to divert his gaze from the road and to give the vehicle all the driving. However, the driver retains the possibility of taking control at any time and must intervene within a certain period of time if the vehicle requests it. The ability to develop a fully automated, Level 4 driving system will be “ assessed ».

Massive Volkswagen investment

The partnership must be based on data collected ” using one of the largest fleets of connected vehicles in the world “, which offers a ” huge database to take autonomous driving systems to the next level said Mathias Pillin, IT Solutions Manager at Bosch. ” More than a thousand employees “, current and new recruits, of the two groups will work together on the project, whose financial details have not been revealed. At the heart of the race autonomous car and connected of the future, software has become strategic for Volkswagen, an area where it plans to invest 27 billion euros by 2025.