Atlanta. Bosch used its booth at the North American Commercial Vehicle show to demonstrate its vision of turning a truck into what Jason Roycht, vice president of the commercial vehicle unit, called “a technology showpiece.”
Roycht said through the combination of automation, connectivity, and electrified technology, lives will be saved and vehicle efficiency will increase.
“The rate of change the next 10 years will be greater than the last 100,” he said during a Sept. 26 media briefing. “Connectivity is a part of our everyday lives. The commercial truck is no exception.”
During that event, Bosch debuted a 15-inch freely programmable digital cluster, which it said is the largest available for the commercial vehicle industry. The company said the screen creates stunning clarity for the safe display of relevant information and enables future safety and automated solutions as it is integrated with advanced driver assistance technologies.
The monitor has two variants, one in landscape mode as a dashboard solution and another in portrait mode as part of a mirror camera system that can replace side mirrors.
To compliment the technology, Bosch also showcased its Central Gateway (CGW) that enables secure connectivity and acts as a router for in-vehicle communication. Bosch units ETAS and ESCRYPT provide the necessary transmission and encryption technologies that ensure data security.
During the media briefing, Roycht also touched upon the recent announcement that it was partnering with Nikola Motor Co. in the development of the Nikola One and Two, a class 8 hydrogen-electric truck lineup. Roycht said Bosch’s eAxle expertise has allowed Nikola to move quickly on an aggressive path to bring its electric truck to market.
The eAxle is a scalable, modular platform with the motor, power electronics, and transmission in one compact unit. This makes it suitable for vehicles of all kinds, from small passenger cars to light trucks
The eAxles will be paired with a custom-designed fuel cell system – also being developed jointly between Nikola and Bosch.
“Together with Nikola we are pushing ourselves to realize new levels of technological achievement and market penetration,” Dr. Markus Heyn, member of the Bosch board of management responsible for commercial vehicles.
