Automotive supplier giant Bosch is the latest firm to announce fast-moving developments in autonomous driving, with the launch of its traffic jam assistant system set for production in 2014.
The system will brake, accelerate and steer vehicles independently at up to, while the company said that in the coming year it would develop to cover faster speeds and more complex driving situations.
“Fully autonomous driving will come about one step at a time,” according to Gerhard Steiger, president of the Bosch Chassis Systems Control division. “At first, driving on highways with an ever greater degree of automation and at ever higher speeds will be possible, until the highway pilot can take over the entire trip.”
He added that inner-city driving and ensuring the system’s functions operate reliably remain the two biggest challenges.
The firm already provides assistance systems such as adaptive cruise control and predictive emergency braking to carmakers, and sees this as the next step. Last year, a Bosch survey revealed that one in three UK drivers would consider buying a vehicle that could be driven autonomously.
Last month, Audi announced it was the first carmaker to be awarded a public license to test autonomously run cars in the state of Nevada, with tech giant Google already holding the only other license.
