Germany-based Bosch is collaborating with Chinese internet giant Baidu and domestic mapping firms AutoNavi and NavInfo on automated driving projects.
Bosch will be supplying components including radar sensors, multi-purpose camera for environment recognition along with ESP braking control system and electronic power steering.
The German firm said that high-precision maps play an important role in automated driving.
Together, the four partners will be working on a solution that will let them use information collected by Bosch’s radar and video sensors in vehicles to generate and update maps.
Bosch is pursuing an open and standardised approach. The data collected from the German supplier will be compatible with the three partners’ map data. The collaboration of the four partners is expected to showcase their solution at the end of this year.
Bosch also claims that more people in China are open to new technology when compared people in Germany and the US. While in Germany around 33% of interviewed people noted that they are in favour of automated driving and 31% of the people in the US are in favour of. But in China, as many as 74% of the interviewed people are in favour of automated driving.
Robert Bosch GmbH’s board of management member and Mobility Solutions business sector chairman Rolf Bulander said: “Automated driving will not be possible without high-precision maps – not in China and not anywhere else in the world either.”
Bulander said: “Automated driving is a global topic for Bosch. “With China we are now starting our fourth testing location after Germany, the US, and Japan.”
Bosch also stated that automated driving is only one potential field of growth for Bosch in China. But, the company has also presented at Auto Shanghai, its concept of how connectivity can transform a car from a means of transportation into a driver’s personal assistant.
