Bosch and Foreca to introduce Cloud-based weather detecting technology

German engineering and electronics firm Bosch has formed a partnership with Finnish weather expert Foreca to roll out a Cloud-based weather detecting technology for self-driving cars by 2020.

The Cloud-based weather detecting solution will alert autonomous cars about environmental conditions, which will give them sufficient time to adjust their driving style.

Bosch management board member Dr Dirk Hoheisel said: “Wet roads, snow, ice, with our predictive road condition services, we alert to hazards before critical situations can develop.

“We are helped here by the weather data provided by our partner Foreca. This means an automated vehicle will know exactly where it can drive autonomously, and how.”

Bosch noted that cars will be able to adjust their speed well in advance to a level that excludes any risk of aquaplaning and allows them to stop safely at any time if they choose to drive through rain.

The weather detecting technology will use Cloud-based data provided by Foreca to prepare a digital image of the environmental conditions around the car.

As the number of vehicles fitted with car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure technology will increase, Bosch will integrate vehicle data into its system.

The data will include information such as inside and outside temperature and whether the windshield wipers are on or not. It will be stored on the Controller Area Network bus, the vehicle’s central data network.