Bosch is trying to transform itself from a traditional OEM to a “Silicon Valley” based new-age OEM. The company recently set up a Connected Mobility division with 600 employees. Despite being a late entrant in the autonomous vehicle space, Bosch is trying to catch up with the competition with a spree of investments. Starting from 2017, Bosch has invested in navigation companies including DeepMap, TetraVue and Here Technologies.
Being a Tier 1 OEM, Bosch already has expertise in hardware for autonomous vehicles – such as sensors, actuators and control units. The company is now trying to gain expertise and control over the software, of which navigation remains an important component. Both Deepmap and TomTom (in partnership with Bosch) use sensor data to send live updates to maps, such technology would be beneficial for Bosch in the long-run, to integrate its hardware with navigation systems.
Bosch is already in partnership with Daimler to develop autonomous level4/level5 “robo-taxis” and invested in Splitting Fares – a B2B ride sharing service provider. With the above investments and partnerships, Bosch is offsetting the risks associated with traditional OEMs, especially with the rise in popularity of autonomous vehicles – Aman Madhok