Bosch says it is ready to make lower cost sensors production ready for automated drive vehicles and that a new long-range lidar (light detection and ranging) sensor will be the first solution suitable for automotive use.
Bosch says the laser-based distance measurement technology is indispensable for driving functions at SAE Levels 3 to 5 and the sensor will cover both long and close ranges – on highways and in the city. By exploiting economies of scale, Bosch wants to reduce the price for the sophisticated technology and render it suitable for the mass market. "By filling the sensor gap, Bosch is making automated driving a viable possibility in the first place," says Bosch management board member Harald Kroeger.
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Bosch maintains that only the parallel deployment of three sensor principles ensures that automated driving will offer maximum safety when it is rolled out. For example, if a motorcycle approaches an automated vehicle at high speed at a junction, lidar is needed in addition to camera and radar to ensure the reliable sensing of the two-wheeler. In this instance, radar can struggle to detect the bike's narrow silhouette and plastic fairings. Moreover, a camera can always be dazzled by harsh light falling on it. As such, Bosch says there is a need for radar, camera, and lidar, with the three technologies complementing each other perfectly and delivering reliable information in every driving situation.
In lidar systems, the sensor emits laser pulses and captures the laser light that is scattered back. The system then calculates distances based on the measured time it takes for the light to bounce back. Lidar offers very high resolution with a long range and a wide field of vision. As a result, the laser-based distance measurement tool can reliably detect even non-metallic objects at a great distance, such as rocks on the road. This means there is plenty of time to initiate driving manoeuvres such as braking or swerving. At the same time, using lidar in vehicles exposes the lidar system's components, such as the detector and the laser, to many stresses – above all, with regard to temperature resistance and reliability over the vehicle's entire lifetime.
Bosch says it can draw on its sensor expertise and systems know-how in the fields of radar and camera technology when developing the lidar, to ensure that all three sensor technologies dovetail with each other. "We want to make automated driving safe, convenient, and fascinating. In this way, we will be making a decisive contribution to the mobility of the future," says Kroeger. Bosch's long-range lidar will not only fulfill all safety requirements for automated driving, it will also enable automakers to efficiently integrate the technology into a very wide range of vehicle types in the future, the company says.
"We want to make automated driving safe, convenient, and fascinating. In this way, we will be making a decisive contribution to the mobility of the future," says Kroeger.
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By GlobalDataIn 2019, Bosch sales of driver assistance systems rose by 12% to around 2 billion euros. These assistance systems are paving the way for automated driving, the company says. Recently, Bosch engineers succeeded in taking the camera technology used in cars to a new level by enhancing it with artificial intelligence. The camera technology detects objects, categorizes them into classes such as vehicles, pedestrians, or bicycles, and measures their movement. In congested urban traffic, the camera can also recognize and classify partially obscured or crossing vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists quickly and reliably. This allows the vehicle to trigger a warning or an emergency braking manoeuvre as required. Bosch engineers are also continuously refining radar technology. The latest generation of Bosch radar sensors is even better at capturing the vehicle's surroundings – including in bad weather or poor light conditions. Their greater detection range, wide aperture, and high angular separability are the basis for this improved performance, the company says.
