Mercedes-Benz and Bosch team up for the latest self-driving car partnership

Mercedes-Benz’ parent company Daimler has teamed up with Bosch, one of the world’s largest supplier of automotive components, in order to speed the development of self-driving cars. The two companies want to make fully-automated and driverless cars “a reality on city streets” by the start of the next decade. Although details about the collaboration are scarce, the firms say the project will “take the comprehensive vehicle expertise of Daimler [and] combine it with the systems and hardware expertise of Bosch.” So, that’s that then.

This isn’t the first pairing we’ve seen in the race to develop driverless vehicles, of course, with plenty of carmakers, suppliers, and tech companies realizing the virtues of cooperation. Fiat Chrysler and Google; Volvo and Uber; Delphi and Mobileye; and now Daimler and Bosch have all joined forces to better pool resources and research.

In the case of this most recent team-up, the companies say their goal is not only to get driverless tech on the road as soon as possible, but, in the process, to alleviate some of the stresses of the urban environment — using smart systems to help manage traffic and improve road safety. Although Mercedes-Benz and Bosch might seem like old-fashioned competitors in an industry dominated by Silicon Valley, recent research suggests that it’s the established automakers — including Daimler — that are actually ahead of the pack. 

The article was published on : theverge