The origins of automated driving at Bosch #History

You might think that self-driving cars are a 21st century invention. But Bosch was already working on the technology almost 50 years ago, long before the era of connectivity and artificial intelligence. At the beginning of the 1970s, the vision of “automatic guidance of vehicles” had already gained a foothold at the company. The results of the first project were promising and paved the way for later developments.

Bosch presented its “automatic vehicle guidance” (AFF) concept at the International Motor Show (IAA) in 1973. Behind the cumbersome name was an initial attempt at automated driving by Bosch in partnership with truck manufacturer MAN. The project was focused on trials on test tracks rather than use on public roads. The aim of the technology was to load containers or transport materials in mines with the help of driverless vehicles.

The starting point and core component of the automatic vehicle guidance system was a leader cable laid in the road. The developers kitted out a MAN truck as a test vehicle, which was controlled by signals sent over radio waves by the cable. The commands were received through metal coils fitted to the front and rear of the truck. For the development teams, there were three main tasks in achieving automatic vehicle guidance: The vehicle had to steer, accelerate, and brake independently and safely. It doesn’t sound like much, but each of these processes was highly complex. Steering the truck wasn’t just about keeping the vehicle on the road, it was also about ensuring that the truck could turn and change lanes. The vehicle was also to be tested at a variety of speeds, from moving at a crawl to top speed, depending on the section of the test track. As a result, the truck had to be able to accelerate and brake with care – and, of course, perform an emergency stop if confronted with an obstacle or any other problem. The developers used infrared equipment and radar systems to measure distances to other vehicles and objects on the road.

Technical implementation was an extremely challenging task. The engineers installed a number of different control circuits, fitted actuators, linked up the automatic transmission with the injection pump, and installed an electronic antilock braking system to help the truck slow down.

The test drives, which included sections on freeways, were successful and the AFF project team were satisfied with the results: “The principle of automatic vehicle guidance using a leader cable developed by Bosch and MAN has been known about for some time now, but for the first time a vehicle has remained on course on reinforced roads and on steel bridges with a high level of stability at up to 90 kph. In the event of a driving error, the vehicle is immediately stopped and generally deviates only marginally from its intended lane. If the concept is shown to be reliable and economically viable, nothing stands in the way of it being rolled out to busy public roads: relieving the burden on drivers and improving road safety.”

Economic viability was where the concept faltered, as installing leader cables throughout the public road network wasn’t viable. Yet automated driving remained on the agenda. At the end of the 1980s, Bosch set up another project known as the “autonomous guidance of road vehicles” together with the Fraunhofer Institut für Informations- und Datenverarbeitung. The goals of the project were all-encompassing: everything that a human driver does behind the wheel of a vehicle should be handled independently by the vehicle – safely remaining on the road, responding to obstacles, and finding a route to the destination. In 1993, the development team unveiled a research vehicle capable of both driving and navigating.

The time for the self-driving car had not yet come. But the results of research conducted in the 1970s and 1990s still set important standards. Many driver assistance systems are rooted in the developments of this time – and those early experiences laid the groundwork for the continued journey towards automated mobility for all.