Most tech and automobile giant are presently engrossed in building their self-driving (or autonomous) technologies. They’re working round the clock to achieve the mountainous task of being the first to master the tech and make it to the market. The latest additions to this initiative are Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler and widely known auto parts maker Bosch. These two giants have today announced their collaboration, aimed at debuting completely autonomous vehicles to urban roads by the beginning of the 2020s.
With their level of expertise and experience in the automobile industry, Bosch and Daimler have now joined hands to accelerate the development of self-driving vehicles. They’ll pitch in their resources and collaborate to introduce fully automated (SAE Level 4) and driverless vehicles (SAE Level 5) to the urban populace by “the beginning of the next decade.” This synergy will be particularly aimed at utilizing hardware and software expertise of each partner to build a secure and predictable environment.
In the official press statement, Daimler describes that the primary objective of this partnership is:
to achieve the production-ready development of a driving system which will allow cars to drive fully autonomously in the city. The idea behind it is that the vehicle should come to the driver rather than the other way round.
This means that both Bosch and Daimler are focused on creating driverless cars which can navigate about sections of the city without a driver accompanying it. This technology could be highly beneficial for cab aggregator services, who can enable users to call the robo-taxi at the press of a button — integrated into their mobile app. These vehicles will provide you a hassle-free and comfortable traveling experience. And once the driverless taxi drops you, it can just zip away to ferry the next individual.
Much like every other initiative, Daimler and Bosch also want to make it safer for their vehicles to operate on urban roads. Thus, they both are also planning to employ cutting-edge technologies to improve the flow of traffic in these areas. With regards to the same, the press statement adds,
[They] aim to improve the flow of traffic in cities, enhance safety on the road and provide an important building block for the way traffic will work in the future.
Though Daimler’s name may not immediately ring a bell and seem like a traditional automaker but it is now accelerating innovation through Mercedez-Benz. The partnership has also been announced under its CASE (Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric) initiative and fits well with the 100-year i-NEXT vision of the company.
