By Mr. R.K. Shenoy, Senior Vice President, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Ltd.
The commercial vehicle market is constantly evolving. Innovative product strategies need to be adapted to the megatrends. The commercial vehicle industry is at an important junction with technology development, globalization and growth in emerging markets set to change the face of the industry in the next decade.
Automotive electronics would continue to play a key role in meeting the megatrends for the commercial vehicle sector.
Some of the key vehicle systems where automotive electronics plays a vital role are powertrain, driving safety and driving comfort. Within the automotive electronics segments, ADAS, connected vehicles and electric energy are considered as leading groundbreaking technologies and promising significant growth potentials.
Commercial vehicles with Bosch diesel systems are found on all roads around the world. With comprehensive system know-how, Bosch makes light-, medium- and heavy-duty CVs more economical, cleaner and more powerful.
Safety in commercial vehicles is a high priority. Focus has shifted from passive safety reducing the impact of accidents to active safety preventing accidents. Electronic traction-control and electronic stability program, anti-lock braking system (ABS) and adaptive distance-control systems are good examples of such systems.
In the heavy commercial vehicle sector, airbags can also effectively protect vehicle occupants from injury. Bosch offers an airbag control unit for heavy commercial vehicles which takes the special requirements of this market segment into account. The Indian Government has taken a proactive step by making ABS compulsory on all new models of commercial vehicles staring April next, an endeavour aimed at making the country’s accident-prone roads safer.
ABS helps control vehicles during emergency braking at high speeds by unlocking the wheels and allowing traction control by electronic distribution of pressure to wheels. This prevents the vehicle from skidding.
Going forward, there is a need to have systems to reduce fatigue by ensuring strict norms for hours of continuous driving and drowsiness detection, which could save a lot of lives.
BOSCH is working on iTraMS which is an End 2 End V2I Ecosystem to enhance the decision making for OE and fleet owners. The solution helps manage fleet vehicles efficiently.
The key functions in the solution are remote monitoring of the fuel economy, driving performance, vehicle diagnosis, preventive maintenance, scheduling, tracking and tracing, geo-fencing and data analytics.
Mr. Shenoy has been associated with the BOSCH Group since 1986 and carries an overall working experience of 26 years in different capacities. Initially, he was responsible for industrial automation, PLC development and precision instrumentation in RBIN, the erstwhile MICO. Later he moved on to the embedded software industry. Prior to his current role, he was responsible for software development for diesel engine management systems and ECU development for trucks and passenger cars.
Mr. Shenoy also carries about six years of international experience in Germany as co-ordinator of software development, customer liaison and leading ECU development for European customers.