BOSCH BUYS START-UP FIVE

Bosch accelerates software development for automated driving with the acquisition of Five, a British start-up for self-driving cars.

Bosch is investing in the development of self-driving cars and is now further strengthening its competencies with Five, Europe’s leading start-up for automated driving. Around 140 employees at six locations in Great Britain pursue the goal of safe self-driving vehicles. Five preferred Bosch to other takeover candidates. Both companies share a common vision of automated driving and safe automated driving systems. The antitrust authorities still have to approve the takeover.

“First and foremost, automated driving should make road traffic safer. To this end, we want to continue to pick up speed with Five in software development and offer our customers technology ”made in Europe”,” emphasizes Dr. Markus Heyn, Bosch board member and chairman of the Mobility Solutions business sector.

Headquartered in Cambridge, UK, Five is to become part of the Bosch Cross-Domain Computing Solutions division. “When developing automated driving, size also matters. Bosch is a global leader in driver assistance and has key technologies and vast amounts of data essential to bringing safe self-driving systems to market. We are delighted that Five will be part of Europe Europe Europe’s strongest player in developing SAE Level 4 solutions. We will be able to participate in Bosch’sBosch’s future success,” said Stan Boland, CEO of Five.

A simulation environment allows testing and validation of software.

Since its founding in 2016, Five has built a team of experts in cloud software, security, robotics, and machine learning. In developing automated driving up to and including SAE Level 4, the start-up quickly made a name for itself with modern software and solutions based on artificial intelligence. Five now focuses primarily on a cloud-based development and testing platform for the software used in self-driving cars. On the one hand, this platform offers engineers all the programs they need to create software for automated driving in the shortest possible time. On the other hand, it enables the software to be tested before and during its use in test vehicles.

Agile collaboration between the Bosch and Five teams

Five will strengthen the agile project structure for developing self-driving cars at Bosch. The software development environments of both teams complement each other very well and are merged into one solution. “Five is the right piece of the puzzle for our development activities – above all, thanks to the employees’ mindset and agile working methods. This brings us closer to our goal of putting safe automated driving on the road,” says Dr. Mathias Pillin, President of the Bosch Cross-Domain Computing Solutions division. For Bosch, the takeover is also a further step in consolidating its market position in ​​software and automated driving. With the acquisition of Atlantic GmbH, the company recently added a specialist for high-resolution digital maps to its portfolio. This makes Bosch the only company that can offer its customers all the building blocks for automated driving from a single source – from actuators, sensors, and maps to software and the development environment.

Bosch is working on all stages of automated driving.

Automated driving is and will remain a strategic business area for Bosch. The company is the innovation leader in this area and, with its driver assistance systems and the associated sensors, laid the basis for all levels of automation early on. At the same time, Bosch is developing solutions for private vehicles focusing on driver assistance, partially and conditionally automated systems (SAE levels 1 to 3) to make driving more comfortable and safer. On the other hand, the team is working on solutions for higher levels of automation with a focus on fleet vehicles and new operator models. In logistics, in particular, Bosch sees attractive application options and business potential for automated driving systems according to SAE Level 4.