TESLA MODEL 3 IBOOSTER DRIVER

To make it as easy as possible for the two teams to share their results, Bosch uses identical test vehicles. The two teams receive support from roughly 2,000 driver-assistance engineers who work for Bosch around the world. Their colleagues at Palo Alto in California’s Silicon Valley are driving forward work on function development. At the Abstatt location in Germany, Bosch engineers are working on system integration. Since 2011, Bosch has had two teams – on two continents – working on automated driving. Several thousand test kilometres driven without a hitch Back-up systems are also available for the two test vehicles’ power supply and vital ECUs. “For Bosch, the principle here is safety first,” Hoheisel says.

TESLA MODEL 3 IBOOSTER DRIVER

These Bosch components can brake the car independently of each other, without any need for driver intervention. For example, both test vehicles feature both the iBooster electromechanical brake booster and the ESP braking control system. The only way to achieve such operational reliability is by a design strategy that includes redundancy in safety-critical systems such as braking and steering. Highly automated vehicles must be capable of operating safely even if a component fails. This transfer of responsibility from the driver to the vehicle explains why so much time and effort is necessary for the retrofit.

“After some 1,400 hours of work on each of them, the test vehicles are ready for highly automated driving,” Hoheisel says.Īrmed with this technology, the two Teslas can now autonomously drive from on-ramp to off-ramp without the driver needing to constantly monitor them. In addition to the camera, 1,300 metres of cable were laid in each car and fixed in place with 400 cable ties. Its compact design makes it easy to integrate into vehicles. The Bosch SVC is the smallest stereo camera system for automotive applications currently available in the market. They included a stereo video camera (SVC), which the car uses to recognize lanes, traffic signs, and clear spaces. Fifty new Bosch components were installed in each car. To make the test vehicles ready for automated driving, they first had to be retrofitted. The new test vehicles are evidence of the progress the global supplier has already made in integrating the necessary systems and components. “Bosch is developing automated driving for production vehicles of all kinds,” says Dr. Dirk Hoheisel, member of the Bosch board of management. At first glance though, it’s hard to tell them apart from production models.

Both these electric test vehicles are helping engineers further refine automated driving. Two Tesla Model S saloons have recently joined the Bosch fleet.

Tesla model 3 ibooster