Bosch is establishing a new Cross-Domain Computing Solutions division.
From the start of 2021, existing and new customers will receive electronics systems and the requisite software from a single source: a division with roughly 17,000 employees.
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“Even now, a vehicle contains some 100m lines of software code,” said member of the Bosch board member and chairman of its Mobility Solutions business sector, Stefan Hartung.
“Only a company with wide-ranging electronics and software expertise will be in a position to shape the future of mobility.”
For the new division, the goal will be to reduce complexity through cross-domain software and electronics solutions. In addition, it will aim to get new vehicle functions on the road significantly faster.
To achieve this, Bosch has assigned software, electrical, and electronics engineers from the areas of driver assistance, automated driving, car multimedia, powertrain and body electronics to the new unit.
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By GlobalData“Bosch is an automotive electronics pioneer,” added Hartung. “Moreover, for quite some time now, it has also been a software company. And in the future as well, our new division is predestined to make further progress in the digitalisation of vehicles.”
Where a car included roughly 10m million lines of software code ten years ago, the software of automated vehicles will include between 300m and 500m lines of code. To put this in context, says Bosch, just 1m lines of software code are the equivalent of nearly 18,000 printed pages.
“Software will play a crucial part in determining a vehicle’s features and feel in the future,” said board member in Bosch’s Mobility Solutions business sector, Harald Kroeger.
“It will help make cars ever more intelligent, and provide drivers with a tangible benefit.”
The supplier of technology and services recognised the significance of vehicle software and has been developing it in-house for nearly four decades, with a current annual spend of EUR3bn.
Traditional software engineering in individual, discrete units is increasingly coming up against its limits, which is why Bosch says it is pooling its automotive software engineering resources in the new Cross-Domain Computing Solutions division.
“Supplying software from a single source is our response to the enormous challenge of making cars ever more digitalised,” added Kroeger.
Kroeger will be responsible for the new division, which in the future will develop both the software on which the vehicle computers and control units are based and the software for vehicle functions, ranging from park-assist and lane-keeping support systems to music streaming.
The result will be the much faster release of new functions, brought to users by software updates.
In addition to cross-domain software development, Bosch is devoting effort to future-proofing vehicles’ E/E (electrical/electronic) architecture. This is why the company is also making the new division responsible for the development of vehicle computers, control units and sensors.
“The core task of Cross-Domain Computing Solutions will be to make the complexity of electronic systems controllable,” added Kroeger. “In addition, the systems will have to be as reliable as possible.”
In this respect, Bosch is focusing in particular on powerful vehicle computers as the technical basis for the digitalisation of modern vehicles. With more and more functions featuring in every part of the vehicle, these computers combine the tasks of individual control units. “Today’s premium vehicles feature more than 100 individual control units, and even compact vehicles have between 30 and 50,” noted Kroeger.
“Such powerful computers will allow us to significantly reduce these numbers.”
