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Interview: Bosch board member sees fully automatic cars available in 10 years

Xinhua, September 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

Automation is one of the major trends the Frankfurt Auto Show displayed and fully automatic cars will be available 10 years later, Rolf Bulander, a member of the Board of Management of Bosch Group has said.

The Frankfurt Auto Show is coming to an end on Sunday. Bulander saw three major trends including electrification, automation and connectivity. "Automation will develop step by step... Our projection is fully automatic driving will be available after 2025," he told Xinhua during the auto show earlier.

Bulander explained that driver assistant systems, which are also part of automation, have been available on the market. Drivers can park their cars without sitting in the car with the automated parking system by Bosch, he said and added a car can get out of the garage and come to the driver who just pushed a button on his smart phone. "Those are the first steps of automation."

He disclosed that Bosch components can make it possible for a car to drive automatically on a highway from exit to exit at a maximum speed of 120 kilometers per hour.

However, fully automatic driving will be "the strongest challenge" in the future, Bulander said. It is not because of technology, he argued, adding that the sensors and software will be available.

In every traffic situation, the automatic driving car will have to understand what to do and how to behave, "not to be too aggressive, not to be too conservative," he elaborated.

Regarding the future of the car market, Bulander foresees continuous growth of electrified cars. He insisted that combustion engine will play a major role in the next decade. "We assume electrified cars will make up 15 percent of the market by 2025."

Among the electrified cars, hybrid cars will make up a major part, he said. "Pure electric cars will only cover 6 to 7 percent of the market." Bosch will continue to work on emissions reduction technology and electrification technologies, he said. Enditem