Bosch and Microsoft Partner on AI-Powered Automated Driving Functions

Bosch and Microsoft teamed up to use generative artificial intelligence to make road traffic safer for all users.

The two companies are working to push the boundaries of automated driving functions by using generative AI, Bosch said in a Wednesday (Feb. 28) press release.

The collaboration aims to allow vehicles to assess situations and react accordingly to ensure the safety of road users — a goal that aligns with the desire for greater road safety expressed by 60% of respondents to a recent Bosch survey, according to the release.

Generative AI has the potential to improve automated driving systems by enabling them to analyze data more effectively and make better decisions in critical situations, the release said.

“Today’s driver assistance systems can detect people, animals, objects and vehicles, but in the near future, generative AI could help determine whether a situation could potentially lead to an accident,” the release said.

After determining that there is potential for an accident, the technology could display a warning to the driver or initiate braking, per the release.

Bosch and Microsoft have an existing partnership focused on connected cars, according to the release. In addition to their work on automated driving, the companies are using generative AI in other applications across different sectors.

Bosch has also partnered with other AI experts, including AWS, Google and Aleph Alpha, the release said. The firm’s venture capital unit, Bosch Ventures, invested in Aleph Alpha in 2023 to develop AI-powered solutions, including AI-based speech recognition for a premium car manufacturer.

Bosch itself is also working on more than 120 specific applications for AI models, per the release. These include applications that generate software program code, power chatbots and voicebots, and enhance an in-house search engine.

Original equipment manufacturers, suppliers and other companies are increasingly collaborating on new use cases for connected car technology, ranging from scheduling maintenance automatically to alerting drivers about traffic jams to bringing payments into the automotive environment.

The collaborations are being driven by “the use cases and the capabilities that consumers want from their vehicles,” Kevin Mull, who was director of mobility solutions at Bosch at the time, told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster in an interview posted in August 2022.

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