Assembling 65,438+07,000 engineers, Bosch established the Intelligent Driving and Control Division, focusing on smart cars.

Bosch, which has made brilliant achievements in the traditional automobile era, has been making internal adjustments in recent years to cope with the changes in the automobile industry.

When intelligent networked cars have become the general trend, Bosch has to follow the trend.

Two years ago, Bosch set up a brand-new Intelligent Networking Division, hoping to promote the company's transformation into an intelligent transportation service provider.

Two years later, Bosch launched a larger-scale internal adjustment and announced the establishment of another brand-new business division-cross-domain? Calculation? Solution).

This business unit integrates almost all the elite talents in Bosch's automotive business, which refers to the development of automotive electronics and software systems.

This will be a very important "elephant turn" in the history of Bosch development, and will also have a far-reaching impact on the development of the global automobile industry.

1. Software is redefining cars.

In the future smart car, a series of electronic and software systems will become more and more important components, and "software-defined car" has become an industry knowledge.

Several sets of data from authoritative research institutions may support this assertion:

About what? 90%? Innovations in the automotive industry all come from the fields of electronics and software; Expect? 2025? By 20 10, the cost of electronic components on each car will rise to about? 7000? Dollars, which accounts for the total cost of vehicles? 35%? Above; Expect? 2030? Now, the annual R&D expenditure of the whole automobile industry? 40%? Will be used for software, total. 460? One billion dollars; What will the future self-driving cars need? 3? -? 5? Billions of lines of code need to be driven.

All these show that the development of electronic and software systems is the key to enhance the competitiveness of the whole automobile industry in the future.

Global car companies including GM and Ford, as well as international companies such as Bosch and Amber? Tier？ 1? They are all promoting the innovation of vehicle electronic and electrical architecture, and the new generation electronic and electrical architecture is evolving from the original single operation of each module to the multi-domain controller and even the central computer architecture.

At present, Audi AG, which is in the dilemma of transformation, is caught in a new car delivery crisis due to software problems.

Lack of software capability has become the fatal weakness of this world's second-ranked car company.

In sharp contrast with the public, Tesla, the upstart electric vehicle, has now gained a growing share price and market value by virtue of its core advantages in automotive software and automotive electronic and electrical architecture.

According to Tesla's latest financial report, the cumulative revenue related to Tesla software has exceeded 10? 10 billion dollars, which is accelerating with the increase of its delivery.

The business model of this car company is more and more in line with Apple, through the automatic driving system? Optional, OTA? Charging for upgrading and advanced car networking has become an important part of income.

Since software and electronic systems are so important to the development of smart cars, Bosch, as the world's leading supplier of auto parts, can't sit still.

Bosch, which created brilliance in the traditional automobile era, also hopes to maintain its market competitiveness in the era of "software-defined automobile".

2. Brand-new intelligent drive and control division: the main force of Bosch automotive software development.

This? 7? In June, Bosch officially announced the establishment of a brand-new Intelligent Driving and Control Division.

According to the plan, Intelligent Driving and Control Division is a global department. Where will this department start? 202 1? Since 2008, 17000 assembly? Our team of engineers provide customers with electronic systems and necessary software.

This? 17000? Personnel will be transferred from Bosch's driver assistance, automatic driving, vehicle multimedia, powertrain and body electronic system in advance. The engineers needed mainly include software, electronics and electricity, and will continue to recruit talents from outside.

17000? What is the concept of man?

Bosch currently has R&D employees all over the world? 6.8? Ten thousand people, including software engineers? 3? Ten thousand people. Therefore, the personnel of the Intelligent Driving and Control Division basically account for more than half of Bosch's existing software engineers.

The new department will be led by Harald, a member of Bosch's board of directors. Captain Kruger, where is this brother? 1994? He joined Daimler Group in 2006, and later served as the purchasing director and quality director of Mercedes-Benz electronic and electrical systems, becoming the top manager of Mercedes-Benz electronic and electrical transmission systems.

20 16? How many years, harald? Kruger? Leave work? 22? Daimler joined Bosch in 2004 and became the president of Bosch Automotive Electronics Division.

Funny thing is, harald? Kruger? During Daimler's tenure as an executive, he briefly joined the Tesla board of directors. Because Daimler is here? 2009? Did you spend money in 2008? 5000? Ten thousand dollars to buy Tesla, probably? 10%? Shares, and Tesla has also become a power battery supplier of Daimler Group.

And then at? 20 14? Year? 6? In June, Daimler sold its Tesla shares at the peak of Tesla's market value at that time, and cashed in about? 7.8? A billion dollars.

As the head of the Intelligent Driving and Control Division, harald? Kruger? Rich working experience in the field of automotive electronics. Current year? 53? Years old, what does it mean? Kruger? There is sufficient energy to promote the development of Bosch, a brand-new department.

The establishment of intelligent driving and control department is the successor of Bosch. 20 18? Since the establishment of the Intelligent Network Division at the beginning of the year, this is another important organizational restructuring. From Intelligent Networking Division to Intelligent Driving and Control Division, Bosch is building a complete supply capacity of intelligent networking automotive core components.

Structurally, this brand-new division will be affiliated to Bosch Automotive and Intelligent Transportation Technology Division, and will be in parallel with Bosch's powertrain solutions division, electric drive division, automotive electronics division, automotive multimedia division, chassis control system division, automotive steering system division, intelligent network division and other departments.

In view of the establishment of this new business unit, Bosch officials said:

"The rapid development of electronic products precision and software diversification has greatly increased the complexity of automotive engineering, and the research results of traditional software engineering development in independent and decentralized departments have reached the limit.

Therefore, Bosch integrates automotive software engineering resources into the new intelligent driving and control department, and reduces its complexity through cross-disciplinary software and electronic solutions. At the same time, the updating speed of vehicle functions is greatly improved. 」

Use? Harald? Kruger? "Bosch hopes to actively respond to the huge challenge of automobile digitalization by providing software in a unified way. 」

The key word is "unification".

As we all know, in Bosch's previous organizational structure, the sectors related to intelligent networking and intelligent driving were scattered and fragmented.

For example, autonomous driving and assisted driving are in the chassis control system division, all kinds? ECU, sensors and other hardware are all in the automotive electronics division, which has the problem of departmental wall, which is not conducive to the unified allocation of resources.

The establishment of the intelligent driving and control division is to break down the partition wall between various divisions and realize unified product supply.

In other words, Bosch has actually recreated a "supplier of smart car software and electronic systems" internally, which is more focused and versatile.

In fact, Bosch's practice is similar to Delphi's split (split out Ampford) and Autoliv's split (split out Weiner), both of which are suppliers. Both companies dismantled the more cutting-edge automotive electronics and autonomous driving business and developed independently.

The difference is that Delphi and Autoliv split independent companies, while Bosch set up a new division internally. Their different ways also depend largely on the nature of the enterprise. After all, Delphi and Autoliv are listed companies, while Bosch is a privatized enterprise.

Just like Bosch's previously established Intelligent Networking Division set up branches in different countries and regions, Intelligent Driving and Control Division will also set up branches around the world (20? Many countries and regions) set up corresponding business departments and recruit local software talents.

However, compared with the Intelligent Network Division, the Intelligent Driving and Control Division can be said to be a giant in scale.

For your reference, Bosch Intelligent Networking Division has passed? 2? Has the development of many years spread all over the world? 700? Multiple employees.

Among them, there is a team dedicated to the business in China-IN? 20 19? In 2006, this team has won some cooperation orders, such as cooperating with faw liberation to promote the transformation of its commercial vehicle intelligent network.

3. Business composition of Bosch Intelligent Drive and Control Division

Focusing on the business level, the Intelligent Driving and Control Division will integrate the organizations responsible for software development and cross-disciplinary electronic system development in Bosch's entire automotive multimedia division, powertrain solutions division, chassis control system division and automotive electronics division, thus forming a comprehensive and unified department.

This brand-new business department will not only develop software for on-board computers and control units, but also develop automatic parking, advanced? Adas? And many functional software including in-vehicle entertainment system.

In addition to cross-domain software development, Bosch Intelligent Driving and Control Division will also coordinate the development of on-board computing units, control units and sensors to form a joint force, so as to better develop the future-oriented vehicle electronic and electrical architecture.

Nowadays, thanks to the improvement of the performance of on-board computing unit, many scattered functional modules in the car are integrated, and core devices such as domain controller become more and more important.

In the past, high-end cars were generally equipped with more than? 100? An independent control unit, small vehicles are also equipped with? 30? Arrive? 50? A.

The subsequent development of domain controllers and airborne central computers will greatly reduce the number of these control units. Many modules, including intelligent cockpit, assisted driving, automatic driving and powertrain, can work together under a unified framework.

Through the Intelligent Driving and Control Division, Bosch will provide customers with a unified export of automotive electronic products and software in the future, and serve the new market demand faster and better.

In addition to integrating the development of software and electronic systems through the intelligent driving and control department, Bosch also put all electronic equipment production in the automobile and intelligent transportation technology business into the automobile electronics department, which is responsible for coordinating the manufacture of control units and on-board computers in all automobile fields.

Basically, Bosch Intelligent Driving and Control Division is responsible for the development of software systems, and Automotive Electronics Division is responsible for the production and manufacture of electronic equipment. These two departments can achieve "soft and hard combination" business cooperation.

Judging from the naming of the new business unit, its future focus should still be in the field of intelligent driving.

At present, Bosch's autonomous driving strategy is "walking on two legs":

Continuous, right? L4、L5？ Level automatic driving technology for research and development; Objection? L3？ Level and below automatic driving, promote mature technology to market as soon as possible.

Judging from the current progress: Bosch and Daimler cooperated at the end of last year? L4？ Class automatic driving? Robotaxi？ Landing in Silicon Valley.

What about now? L2.5、L3？ Class-8 autonomous driving field, including getting rid of its function on expressway, now Bosch Shanghai and Suzhou can undertake mass production projects.

This year, Bosch plans to invest more than? 6? 10 billion euros (equivalent? 46? 1 100 million yuan), estimated? 2022? Annual cumulative investment? 40? 10 billion euros (equivalent? 307? 1 billion yuan).

4. "Software Enterprise" Bosch

As the world's top automotive technology and service provider, Bosch has long realized the importance of in-vehicle software.

Bosch is here? 20 14? In 2006, the "3S" strategy was released, which transformed from a traditional hardware-based supplier to a new supplier focusing on software and services. It includes sensors, software and services.

In many public occasions, Bosch has constantly stressed that it has become a software company with a huge software development team, with more than 3? Ten thousand software engineers.

Take Bosch China as an example, 20 19? At the end of the year, Bosch Wuxi established the Innovation and Software Development Center, which is planned to be in? 2020? It was completed and put into use in the middle of the year. At present, this center is recruiting a large number of software talents.

Dr. Chen Yudong, President of Bosch China, said earlier, "Our Wuxi Software Center will recruit at least several hundred software talents this year. As long as you are qualified, you basically need one. As long as the software department applies, we will approve it without making any adjustments. 」

Bosch's construction of software capability is also reflected in its investment in artificial intelligence technology.

20 19? In, Bosch released "2025? Artificial intelligence strategy "-what is its goal? 2025? In 2008, every Bosch product will have artificial intelligence function, or use artificial intelligence technology in the development and production process.

Under the guidance of this strategy, Bosch has set up offices in Germany, USA, Indian, Israeli and China? 7? Artificial intelligence research center. Since its establishment, Bosch Artificial Intelligence Center has developed more than? 160? A project.

Globally, Bosch has about? 1000? An expert in artificial intelligence.

Nowadays, Bosch's development ambition in smart car software has been more vividly demonstrated through the establishment of a brand-new intelligent driving and control division.

The above Bosch's resources and talent reserves in software capabilities provide a solid foundation for the establishment and development of the Intelligent Driving and Control Division.

Although this brand-new division is still in the preparatory stage, it can be predicted that when the division really starts to operate one year later, the image presented by Bosch to the outside world will no longer be traditional? Tier？ 1, but a leading supplier of intelligent in-vehicle software systems.

This is also the core competitiveness of Bosch in the future.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.