Bosch Sees Great Market Potential for Vehicle Computers

The trend toward software-defined mobility goes hand in hand with a centralized vehicle and electric/electronic (E/E) architecture. While numerous electronic control units usually control different functions in the car today, in the future just a few central vehicle computers will unite multiple system functions from previously separate domains.

To do this, new computers with a powerful processor, known as a system on chip (SoC), are necessary. Bosch is leading the charge and, at CES 2024 in Las Vegas, will be the world’s first automotive supplier to demonstrate the fusion of infotainment and driver assistance functions in a software-intensive central computer on a single SoC.

“We want to reduce the complexity of the electronics systems in cars and make them as secure as possible at the same time. With this demonstration of our new vehicle computer platform at CES, we are taking an important step in exactly this direction. Our goal in the medium term is to bring even more automated driving functions to the road, including to the compact and midsized car segments,” says Markus Heyn, member of the board of management at Bosch and chairman of Bosch Mobility.

At the core of the new vehicle computer from Bosch – called the cockpit & ADAS integration platform – is a single SoC, which processes a variety of functions from the two domains of infotainment and driver assistance simultaneously. This includes, for example, automated parking and lane detection, paired with smart, personalized navigation and voice assistance. Advantages for vehicle manufacturers are less space and cabling required, meaning lower costs.

For its central vehicle computers, Bosch uses a modular system principle. Together with stand-alone software solutions such as video perception for surround sensing, vehicle manufacturers can modularly and scalably assemble their solutions in combination with hardware components. Software-intensive central computers play a decisive role here since they enable manufacturers to implement driving and assistance features.

Bosch predicts that the market for automotive software will reach a volume of around €200 billion by 2030. In the field of vehicle computers for infotainment and driver assistance systems, the company expects a market volume of €32 billion in 2030. In fact, in 2026, the company expects sales revenue of €3 billion just for vehicle computers for infotainment and driver assistance.