Bosch is a huge global company with products that span many products and industries.

At CES (formerly the Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, on January 5, 2025, the company held a wide-ranging press conference. Paul Thomas, president, Bosch, North America, included an update on the company’s mobility software developments.

Thomas opened his remarks by noting that software will change not only how people use and experience cars and trucks, but how we develop them as well.

Cloud-Enabled Vehicle Performance

In the age of software-defined mobility, Thomas said Bosch programmers approach cars from a software perspective. They are developing technologies and solutions for new centralized architectures that effortlessly manage all interactions between automotive electronics and the cloud. 

This, Thomas said, will be essential in the future if cars are to be able to download new functions for areas such as infotainment or driver assistance easily and conveniently over the air.

One recent development by Bosch is a new software function allows vehicles to brake smoothly and without jerking. 

Bosch said this feature helps drivers in slow-moving traffic. It can also help passengers who suffer from motion sickness. 

“No one understands the requirements and needs of the automotive industry as comprehensively as Bosch,” Paul Thomas said. “With our mobility-specific software expertise, we’re the ideal partner for the world’s major tech players.” 

AI-Enabled Safety Systems

Artificial intelligence has dominated headlines for well over a year now. And Bosch is working on AI-enabled software solutions for assisted and automated driving

One example Thomas pointed to is the Bosch MPC3 multifunctional camera. 

This unit has been in volume production since 2019. It can reliably recognize objects and people as well as distinguish between the road and the edge of the road, thereby keeping vehicles safely in their lanes. 

The camera combines conventional image-processing algorithms with AI methods for a complete understanding of what it is recording. 

“Our AI-based multifunction camera not only makes driving more relaxed, but also makes the roads safer for all users,” Thomas noted. 

To achieve this, Bosch is combining its automotive engineering knowledge and its AI expertise with a pool of in-house sensor data to increase the efficiency its vehicle assistance systems. 

Bosch is also investigating how generative AI can be used to further improve automated driving functions. 

The expectation is that it will enable vehicles to assess situations and react accordingly to keep drivers safer. 

In the future, Bosch believes generative AI will train automated driving functions more quickly. This will reduce the number of test miles required to validate them. 

And by adding conditions such as snow to the road, generative AI will quickly be in a position to alter the context of a driving sequence recorded by cameras or radar sensors. 

In other words, systems can be trained for snow without having to wait until snow actually falls – the AI will do it itself.