Bosch launches the industry's first cabin-driver integration demo! The entire solution reduces costs by up to 30%-EEWORLD

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With the further upgrade of the domain fusion architecture, the "central computing + regional control" architectural model will enable cars to have a true "super brain" central computing platform.

At the same time, the main control chip used in the central computing platform can support high integration of various functions, greatly simplify the complex procedures of automobile manufacturing, reduce development costs, and help reduce communication delays, so that sensor data can be reused more timely and fully, achieving a smoother automobile intelligent function experience.

Judging from the current situation of the industry, with the improvement of intelligent driving level and the complexity of vehicle functionality, in order to further enhance coordination, the industry has introduced a cross-domain fusion mode based on the domain concentration architecture. The five major domains of powertrain, chassis, body, cockpit and intelligent driving have begun to try cross-domain integration.

Although different OEMs have different emphases on the collaboration between domains, the general idea is to first integrate the functions of some domains into a high-performance computing unit, and then gradually aggregate the functions of more domains.

Facing the competition in the second half of intelligence, many OEMs and Tier 1s have focused on the integration of cockpit and intelligent driving, which is strongly related to the user's intelligent experience. That is, they integrate the cockpit domain and the intelligent driving domain into a high-performance computing unit, while supporting intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit functions.

Driven by multiple factors such as the implementation of central computing platforms such as NVIDIA and Qualcomm, the rapid evolution of SOA architecture technology, and the continued cost optimization needs of OEMs, the pace of mass production of cabin-driver integration solutions has quietly accelerated.

Bosch predicts that by 2030, the market size of the cross-domain integrated platform for intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit will reach 32 billion euros.

According to the latest news, Bosch's cabin-driver integration solution has been adapted in China and is the first domestic demo that truly realizes the real scene of cabin-driver integration.

Bosch Cockpit Fusion Demo

At the 2024 Beijing Auto Show, Bosch XC will exhibit a single-chip cabin-driver fusion solution for the first time. This cross-domain fusion solution can reduce the communication delay between domains, thereby improving the cockpit interaction experience. Compared with the separate cabin-driver fusion solution with 2 SoCs and 2 sets of controllers , the total cost can be reduced by up to about 30%.

Bosch accelerates with the first single-chip cabin-driving fusion

Obviously, with the continuous upgrading of automotive electronic and electrical architecture, the status and cooperation model of each role in the smart car industry chain are also changing dynamically.

On the one hand, the integration of automotive functions will drive suppliers to integrate horizontally. For example, the cockpit and intelligent driving will be merged into a cockpit-driving integrated domain controller , and cockpit suppliers and intelligent driving solution providers will also be integrated.

On the other hand, in order to maintain their own status, traditional Tier 1 companies such as Bosch, Aptiv, and Desay SV have also begun vertical integration, building full-stack software and hardware R&D capabilities, and transforming from component suppliers to system solution providers, providing full-process services from early technical research and development to later data sharing, and creating integrated hardware and software products for OEMs.

For example, as an established Tier 1, Bosch has extensive knowledge in all automotive domains, which means that Bosch is not only an expert in software but also in hardware, and is able to develop and manufacture key components of smart cars such as powertrain, braking, steering, infotainment and autonomous driving on a single platform.

In this context, Bosch's heavily developed cockpit-driver fusion solution uses a single chip domain controller as a carrier to integrate high-speed elevated NOA function, family area parking function and current mainstream smart cockpit functions including multiple screens, wake-up voice, multiple audio zones, AI large models, etc.

This also means that the popularity of cabin-driver integration will remain unabated starting from 2023. However, due to the complexity of cross-domain software and hardware design, and the different requirements of cockpit and intelligent driving domains for functional safety and middleware, the solutions of suppliers are few and far between, and the multi-chip "cabin-driving-mooring-in-one" domain control solutions are mostly at the PPT stage.

In comparison, Bosch's pace is obviously faster.

As early as CES 2024, Bosch launched the world's first new cross-domain computing platform, using Qualcomm's latest generation Snapdragon Ride™ Flex SoC to support the simultaneous operation of numerous smart cockpit and smart driving functions on a single SoC, including automatic parking, lane detection, intelligent personalized navigation, voice assistance, driving assistance functions, etc.

"Bosch wants to reduce the complexity of automotive electronic systems while ensuring their safety as much as possible; by presenting our new cross-domain computing platform at the 2024 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Bosch has taken an important step in this direction. Our medium-term goal is to provide more assisted driving functions for the compact and mid-size car market." said Dr. Markus Hein, member of the Bosch Group Board of Management and chairman of Bosch Intelligent Mobility.

02 Bosch's global cabin driving cross-domain sales revenue is expected to reach 3 billion euros in 2026

In the view of Gaogong Intelligent Automobile, 2024 is expected to be the first year for the implementation of cross-domain integrated commercialization.

For OEMs and suppliers, new market opportunities have emerged, while challenges continue to escalate.

For example, since intelligent driving is closely coupled with driving safety, the requirements for safety, reliability, response speed, etc. in the intelligent driving domain are higher than those in the cockpit domain; while the cockpit domain pays more attention to interactive experience, in-vehicle infotainment and other system experiences, and the demand for diversification and continuous iteration is obvious.

Therefore, the current technical challenges of cabin-cockpit integration also lie in how a single chip can simultaneously meet the differentiated needs of the intelligent driving domain and the cockpit domain, including different requirements for real-time and safety, as well as the implementation methods of different functional safety level isolation and resource scheduling.

From a commercial perspective, the most prominent point is that as the price war of new energy vehicles escalates, the pressure on suppliers to reduce costs and increase efficiency has also increased. At the same time, OEMs are further shortening the vehicle development cycle and delivery cycle to accelerate the launch of new vehicles.

However, as a transitional stage of the central electronic and electrical architecture, the integration of cabin and driver conforms to the development trend of automobile architecture. Compared with integrated driving and docking, integrated cabin and docking, its technical cost reduction advantages under scale will be more obvious.

However, as car companies shorten their vehicle manufacturing cycles, the delivery cycles of Tier 1s have actually been significantly increased, which puts a great test on the series engineering capabilities of cabin-driver integration solution suppliers.

At present, the competitive advantage of this segment has tilted towards traditional Tier 1 companies such as Bosch.

On the one hand, Bosch already has mass production and development experience in 300 ADAS projects and nearly 70 smart cockpit domain control projects in China. The local team can help customers improve the definition of system requirements and develop platform products, achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement, and provide safe and reliable product solutions.

For example: in terms of cross-domain software security isolation, the demo demonstrated by Bosch can ensure that when the cockpit domain encounters an abnormal restart, the intelligent driving function can still operate normally.

More importantly, compared with the separate solutions of two SoCs and two sets of controllers , the cost of Bosch's cabin-driving fusion solution can be reduced by up to about 30%, including more than 50% reduction in shell costs, 30% reduction in chip costs, and 20% reduction in electronic components and circuit boards.

On the other hand, Bosch's cabin-driver fusion solution adopts a chip decoupling strategy to achieve maximum flexibility. Based on the chip decoupling (multi-SoC) strategy, when designing new vehicle computers, Bosch can flexibly adapt chips from different manufacturers according to customer needs.

"Our software can run on chips from different manufacturers, which allows software and hardware to be decoupled from each other," said Dr. Hein.

This will also open up a broader market space for Bosch's cross-domain integration business. For example, to adapt to the local supply chain needs in China, Bosch can flexibly cooperate and provide support whether it is cooperating with customers in full-stack hardware and software, hardware + basic software, or pure software modules.