Platform to simplify and speed up the development and deployment of vehicle software throughout the lifetime of cars

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Bosch and Microsoft are working on a new software platform that can provide seamless connectivity between cars and cloud. (Credit: Robert Bosch GmbH)

Robert Bosch and Microsoft have entered into a partnership for developing a software-defined vehicle platform based on Microsoft Azure for enabling seamless integration between cars and cloud.

The collaboration will aim to simplify and speed up the development and deployment of vehicle software throughout the lifetime of cars in compliance with automotive quality standards.

To achieve this, Bosch and Microsoft will bring in their respective expertise in automotive and cloud computing to the collaboration.

According to Bosch, strict safety requirements throughout the lifetime of vehicles mean that wireless software updates and digital services for cars are highly complex.

The new platform will address the issues by integrating software modules from the German engineering company. It will help in software to be developed and downloaded to the control units and also vehicle computers.

For the end-users, the platform is expected to help in getting quicker access to new functions and digital services.

The partners are targeting to make the platform available for first vehicle prototypes by the end of this year.

Bosch management board member Markus Heyn said: “Having a comprehensive software platform from the vehicle to the cloud will reduce the complexity of the software development and the vehicle system integration.

“In this way, we will create the conditions for wireless updates to work just as smoothly and conveniently in vehicles as they do in smartphones.

“The pre-integrated platform will greatly reduce the complexity of over-the-air updates, which help ensure that a vehicle’s software is always up to date, thanks to the fact that the software architectures of vehicles and the cloud will now fit together seamlessly.”

Under the collaboration, Bosch and Microsoft will also focus on developing tools that can boost efficiency in the software development process.

The tools are expected to drive innovation and cut down development costs within and across organisations for vehicle software.

The partners also intend to use GitHub’s fully integrated enterprise platform and to open-source key parts of the new software platform on the code hosting platform.

Microsoft cloud + AI executive vice president Scott Guthrie said: “Our collaboration with Bosch brings together the expertise of one of the world’s leading automotive suppliers with the power of the Microsoft cloud, AI and GitHub.

“With software quickly becoming a key differentiator in the automotive industry, our ambition is to help businesses accelerate the delivery of unique mobility services across passenger cars and commercial fleets at scale.”

Recently, Microsoft forged a partnership with Volkswagen’s Car.Software Organisation for developing a cloud-based automated driving platform on Microsoft Azure.