Bosch analysis: driver assistance systems continue their strong advance

Stuttgart, Germany – People buying new cars today in Germany and Europe are placing more and more value on having electronic assistants on board. “There is a clear trend: it will soon be just as natural to have cars fitted with driver assistance systems as it is with a radio and ESP,” says Bosch board of management member Dr. Dirk Hoheisel, referring to the results of a Bosch analysis carried out on the basis of new registration statistics for 2016. According to these statistics, parking and lane assist systems, as well as emergency braking systems are becoming increasingly popular. For example, 62 percent of new passenger cars registered in Germany in 2016 were equipped with some kind of parking assistance system – ranging from parking beepers to automatic parking assistants. Second place in the popularity scale was taken by automatic emergency braking systems that warn drivers or bring the car to a halt in an emergency. More than one in every three new cars registered in 2016 (38 percent) is able to help drivers to avoid accidents in this way. For more than a quarter of these vehicles, an emergency braking system is even part of the car’s standard fittings. Just behind in third place was driver drowsiness detection – fitted in 37 percent of all new passenger cars in 2016. However, the largest growth was recorded for lane assist systems. Compared with the previous year, there were twice as many of these on board new cars in 2016. Another interesting development was in relation to adaptive cruise control (ACC). Although barely fitted in four percent of newly registered cars in Germany in 2013, in 2016, this function was installed in nearly one in five new cars (19 percent).

There is a clear trend: it will soon be just as natural to have cars fitted with driver assistance systems as it is with a radio and ESP.

Bosch board of management member Dr. Dirk Hoheisel

Driver assistance systems are increasingly fitted as standard equipment

Parking assistance systems, emergency braking systems, and lane assist systems are also the most popular driver assistance systems in the U.K., the Netherlands, Belgium, and France – in that exact order. Parking assistance systems are even more widespread in France than they are in Germany: 67 percent of the new passenger cars registered there in 2016 provide their drivers with support while they park. Parking assistance systems are now included in the standard equipment of a vast majority of vehicles: at 63 percent of new cars, France has the highest proportion. In Germany, this figure is 42 percent. In Belgium and the Netherlands, 39 percent of new cars have an automatic emergency braking system – the highest proportion in Europe. Italy and Russia, which, alongside France, were included in the Bosch analysis for the first time, still have room to improve when it comes to driver assistance systems when compared with the other countries that were analyzed. However, 18 percent of new passenger cars registered in Italy in 2016 still had a lane assist system on board – and in Russia, they are getting the ball rolling with an installation rate of 6 percent. This is also true of automatic emergency braking systems, which also achieved a proportion of 6 percent in new passenger cars.

Bosch is growing quicker than the market with driver assistance systems

Driver assistance systems help drivers in confusing or critical traffic situations, and are an important step on the way to the accident-free and stress-free mobility of the future. If all vehicles in Germany had an automatic emergency braking system on board, for example, up to 72 percent of all rear-end collisions resulting in injury could be prevented. Installation rates for driver assistance systems are constantly increasing. As the largest provider of such systems, Bosch is also benefiting from this. “The market is currently growing by about 20 percent, and Bosch is growing even faster,” says Gerhard Steiger, president of Bosch’s Chassis Systems Control division. In 2019, the provider of technology and services will exceed the two-billion-euro mark with sales of its driver assistance systems. The one-billion mark was already achieved in 2016. At the moment, technical development is increasingly heading toward automated driving. The Bosch analysis shows that, with traffic jam assist, the first partially automated function has now also arrived on the market. In a traffic jam, the car automatically follows the vehicle in front, assuming the tasks of starting and accelerating as well as braking and steering within its own lane. Of the new cars in Germany that are equipped with ACC, almost half of them are also fitted with a traffic jam assist function, which is nine percent of all newly registered passenger cars.

Bosch analysis based on 2016 statistics for newly registered cars

In 2016, 3.4 million new cars were registered in Germany. Based on new vehicle registration statistics collected by the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) for the year 2016 as well as data (data status 22.03.2017) supplied by business intelligence firm IHS Markit, Bosch analyzed the passenger segments to see how – whether as standard or optional equipment – and which driver assistance systems are currently on offer. Bosch has been investigating the development of installation rates for driver assistance systems since 2013.