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Your car, your friend. Your car, your buddy. Your car, your soulmate. This is how the automotive supplier BOSCH imagines the car of the future. From a simple, no-nonsense and highly functional means of transport to a “buddy” that fits seamlessly into your world. We know similar developments from the smartphone, from the once ridiculed “mobile Yuppi phone box” to the most important companion in everyday life, to the “first screen” at home. Smartphones have long since taken on much more than just simple “communication”. The BOSCH show car for CES 2016 in Las Vegas is such a vision for the transformation from a utility device to a “buddy”. Only in automobile form. Once just a motor carriage, in the future probably a smartphone on wheels and maybe something like a buddy?
BOSCH is showing the “Best Buddy” in the form of a futuristic roadster in Las Vegas
When two of the most important players in the world of automotive suppliers come together to shape the future, then you should take a closer look. What suppliers “vision” is usually everyday automotive life in five to ten years.
BOSCH - the group with many ideas
For the automotive supplier EDAG from Wiesbaden, appearing at the trade fair with a spectacular “concept vehicle” is nothing unusual. In Geneva 2015 has the Cocoon public for the first time presents. It was a car with a completely new design approach. Bionical design, natural lightweight construction, the implementation of 3D printing for vehicle construction. The Cocoon concept demonstrated several new approaches to the car of the future. For BOSCH's appearance at CES 2016, they are now going one step further. The cocoon became a “Soulmate” – that’s what EDAG calls the BOSCH show car.
For BOSCH it is important to demonstrate convergence. The automotive supplier from Swabia is not only an automotive supplier, but also offers home automation, security solutions and classic home appliances. All of this can be combined. It will connect. We - the end customers - we will demand exactly that. As logical as today the smartphone is integrated into our everyday life and often hardly used for making calls, the next step in the automobile is logical.
2025: convergence and autonomous driving
That from BOSCH after Las Vegas for CES 2016 brought “showcar” demonstrates a vision for the car of the future. While the of EDAG The two-seater designed and constructed by the people of Wiesbaden as “Soulmate” is now presented as an open roadster, but without losing any of its cool Bionicle concept, BOSCH ensures a comprehensible vision of driving in the future.
Around-View - in the interior
There are seven displays with a resolution that make what you see become real, which dominate the interior. In addition to the widescreen displays housed in the classic dashboard, it is the touchscreen displays in the center console that impress the viewer. Their haptic feedback goes beyond what was previously known. Patterns and textures can be felt even though the display has a smooth surface! For these new touchscreens, BOSCH was already awarded the “CES 2016 Innovation Award" excellent!
In addition to the monitors in the occupants' field of vision, the advanced design of the interior in the Soulmate is used by Bosch technicians to integrate an “Ambilight” into the car. In this way, blind spots of the vehicle can be displayed; the car could thus display objects in the blind spot as flat lighting spots.
Autonomous convergence
Are you driving in the car again when the delivery man rings? Open the front door from the vehicle. While driving, of course. The BOSCH show car represents a connection between “home” and “mobile”, a convergence of living spaces and technologies. BOSCH is represented in the home alarm technology market as well as in automotive technology, so why not simply connect the worlds?
Package for you!
The delivery man rings the doorbell. The vehicle thus becomes a “driving smartphone” and offers autonomous driving mode so that you can fully concentrate on the conversation. Before doing so, it checks the driving situation. Does traffic allow autonomous driving? The steering wheel, which has been developed into a “control horn”, flashes blue touch fields in the area of the thumb rest. The driver confirms this and the car takes control of the journey. The driver, in turn, confirms his identity with his thumbprint on the new touchscreen and accepts the “phone call” with his door intercom and the parcel delivery person. Letting the delivery person into a secure area of your home to deliver or take a package is just part of the vision you have at BOSCH when you think about it “Car as a buddy” for everyday life. The fact that cars will soon be able to park themselves is no longer a surprise to us. It is only a logical development that cars in the future will be as useful “buddies” as smartphones are today.
Brain lard for the future
An emergency braking assistant, a lane keeping assistant, all useful systems for the car and still a vision many years ago. It is the automotive suppliers who significantly drive progress in automobile manufacturing with their ideas. And so you have to see the ideas behind the BOSCH show car at the CES 2016 in Las Vegas as visions with a high chance of fulfillment. We can be confident that we will soon see fingerprint and gesture control in cars as normal. We can also be convinced that the everyday life of autonomous driving will bring us completely new ideas, namely how to use the time in the car sensibly. The author is convinced that the car will soon no longer just be seen as a “means of transport” but as a “second home” with a connection to the “smart home” and thus as a bridge to the “smart phone” after the first contact with the show car also convinced by BOSCH.
The way of Soulmate
Anyone who is afraid of going to Las Vegas will have the chance to take a look at the “Soulmate” and the ideas from BOSCH and EDAG at the Geneva Motor Show in March. If you don't come to Geneva, wait for the next article (12.01.2016) to the “Soulmate” on my-auto-blog. The show vehicle offers a few more details that we will shed light on when we take a look behind the scenes.