Suche

Press-Feature #Business/economy
share

How digital assistants make life easier

Two examples of tomorrow’s connected living

Sven Kahn

Sven Kahn

X

Home help, bodyguard, and butler – until now, only pop stars or top earners have been able to treat themselves to a personal assistant. Now Bosch is looking to change that by offering digital assistants that can lighten everyone’s load or call for help in an emergency. What makes this possible is the internet of things. Soon refrigerators, cars, and smart homes will be communicating with each other autonomously in the cloud. Where today the likes of Siri and Alexa can carry out simple voice commands, in the future digital assistants will be able to make our everyday lives easier without any instructions. The following examples show how that works:

Traffic jam? The refrigerator has a better idea!

The idea is for the digital assistant to combine information from various devices and make all of our lives easier. In order for this to happen, different things must communicate with one another, as Bosch shows with the following example: As you drive home from work, your car’s navigation system reports a traffic jam and suggests an alternative route. This route happens to pass the supermarket. Without a click, the digital refrigerator signals that it is sending the current shopping list to the vehicle display. While the car is parking at the supermarket, the smart home turns up the heating, so that your home is nice and warm for when you arrive 30 minutes later.

Bosch is already paving the way for these connected digital assistants. Whether a home appliance, gardening tool, car, or heating system, each electric product the company produces will feature connectivity.

A connected business trip to London

A business trip to London in the not-too-distant future: just as the freeway exit for the airport comes into view, the mailman rings the doorbell at home. Not a problem, as long as the smart car is connected to the smart home. After a brief video chat with the mailman, the traveler gives an in-vehicle touchscreen command to open the front door. Next stop: the airport parking garage. The vehicle automatically takes over the job of finding a free spot while the traveler goes through security. After the plane has landed in London, the traveler’s smartphone reports “congestion on all access roads” and offers an alternative to a taxi: take the train to Regent’s Park, where an electric car has been reserved for the remainder of the journey.

This scenario is realistic in the medium term. The technology is already at an advanced stage: according to the Electronica Trend Index 2020, 63 percent of those surveyed are in favor of having a digital assistant for their everyday lives.

About Bosch

The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. It employs roughly 429,000 associates worldwide (as of December 31, 2023). The company generated sales of 91.6 billion euros in 2023. Its operations are divided into four business sectors: Mobility, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology. With its business activities, the company aims to use technology to help shape universal trends such as automation, electrification, digitalization, connectivity, and an orientation to sustainability. In this context, Bosch’s broad diversification across regions and industries strengthens its innovativeness and robustness. Bosch uses its proven expertise in sensor technology, software, and services to offer customers cross-domain solutions from a single source. It also applies its expertise in connectivity and artificial intelligence in order to develop and manufacture user-friendly, sustainable products. With technology that is “Invented for life,” Bosch wants to help improve quality of life and conserve natural resources. The Bosch Group comprises Robert Bosch GmbH and its roughly 470 subsidiary and regional companies in over 60 countries. Including sales and service partners, Bosch’s global manufacturing, engineering, and sales network covers nearly every country in the world. Bosch’s innovative strength is key to the company’s further development. At 136 locations across the globe, Bosch employs some 90,000 associates in research and development, of which nearly 48,000 are software engineers.

The company was set up in Stuttgart in 1886 by Robert Bosch (1861–1942) as “Workshop for Precision Mechanics and Electrical Engineering.” The special ownership structure of Robert Bosch GmbH guarantees the entrepreneurial freedom of the Bosch Group, making it possible for the company to plan over the long term and to undertake significant upfront investments in the safeguarding of its future. Ninety-four percent of the share capital of Robert Bosch GmbH is held by Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH, a charitable foundation. The remaining shares are held by Robert Bosch GmbH and by a corporation owned by the Bosch family. The majority of voting rights are held by Robert Bosch Industrietreuhand KG. It is entrusted with the task of safeguarding the company’s long-term existence and in particular its financial independence – in line with the mission handed down in the will of the company’s founder, Robert Bosch.

Additional information is available online at www.bosch.com, www.iot.bosch.com, www.bosch-press.com.

download