Bosch Seeks Software Drive via Five AI Acquisition

“Automated driving is set to make road traffic safer. We want Five to give an extra boost to our work in software development for safe automated driving, and offer our customers European-made technology.”

Versatile German company Bosch is looking to accelerate software development for automated driving with the acquisition of Cambridge-based Five AI.

Financial details were not disclosed but Bosch reckons the software building blocks in both firms’ toolchain engineering environments complement each other.

Bosch might be famous for its power tools but in fact the firm has a great interest in the mobility sector. Mobility Solutions is the largest Bosch Group business sector. According to preliminary figures, it generated sales of €45.4 billion (£37.8 billion) in 2021, and thus contributed 58% of total sales from operations. Its other sectors are Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology. (Being skilled in different things isn’t that unusual. Yamaha makes pianos and motorcycles.)

With this new acquisition, Dr. Markus Heyn, member of the Bosch board of management and chairman of the Mobility Solutions business sector, comments: “Automated driving is set to make road traffic safer. We want Five to give an extra boost to our work in software development for safe automated driving, and offer our customers European-made technology.”

Five is to be part of the Bosch Cross-Domain Computing Solutions division. At six locations in the UK, Five has around 140 staff. There are no details about any job cuts or changes as part of the deal.

According to Bosch, Five gave preference to Bosch over other takeover bidders. The acquisition is still subject to approval by the antitrust authorities.

Since it was set up in 2016, Five has built a team that focuses on cloud software, safety assurance, robotics and machine learning. It has developed software and artificial intelligence-based solutions for autonomous driving, through SAE Level 4.

Five has focused primarily on a cloud-based development and testing platform for the software used in self-driving cars. This offers engineers programs to create automated driving software, and to test it before and during its deployment in test vehicles. The platform is able to analyse data from a fleet of test vehicles, create testing scenarios, and build a simulation environment.

Bosch also recently extended its software and automated driving portfolio by acquiring Atlatec, a Karlsruhe-based digital map provider. Bosch explains that it can offer its customers “all the necessary building blocks of automated driving from a single source – from actuators, sensors, and maps to software and the engineering environment”.

The Bosch Group is a behemoth and employs roughly 401,300 people worldwide (as of 31 December 2021). According to preliminary figures, the company generated sales of €78.8 billion (£65.6 billion) in 2021.

Antony Peyton
Antony Peyton
Antony Peyton is the Editor of eWeek UK. He has 18 years' journalism and writing experience. His career has taken him to China, Japan and the UK - covering tech, fintech and business. Follow on Twitter @TonyFintech.
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