Plus and Bosch team up for commercial truck automation

Assisted driving technology for commercial trucks got a boost today with news of a collaboration between Bosch and Plus, who will integrate their software and hardware products to achieve Level 2 autonomy features.

That approach is designed to support partial automation by continuously helping drivers with acceleration, braking, and steering. And in turn, those features could help improve driver retention, fuel economy savings, and reduce accidents, they said.

The partners say the deal will make software-defined commercial trucks a reality, thanks to the combination of Plus’ PlusDrive solution with Bosch’s integrated steering system featuring software, sensors, vehicle computers, and actuators. Together, those components will deliver driver assistance and partially automated features to commercial vehicles, the companies say.

Specifically, Plus says its PlusDrive platform provides autonomous features such as traffic jam assist, merge handling, driver-initiated and suggested lane change, over-the-air updates, lane nudge, sensor self-calibration, and driver attentiveness detection. And those technologies will now be combined with Bosch’s steering system for lateral control.

“Plus’s underlying next-generation safety solution enabled by our open autonomy platform, combined with Bosch’s steering software system, will help to prevent accidents in commercial vehicles and make roads safer. The proven commercial readiness of our highly automated Plus system accelerates the deployment for our partners and improves the safety and sustainability for the trucking industry,” Shawn Kerrigan, COO and co-founder of Plus, said in a release.