Bosch, Nokia and Deutsche Telekom have joined to develop a local cloud-based solution for the automotive industry.

They will work on the complete integration of vehicles via the cellular network all the way through to the Bosch IoT Cloud.

The companies will use Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), a cellular network technology that uses a local cloud, which is situated directly at a mobile base station near the roadside and not on the internet. This will aggregate and process latency-critical information and distribute it to drivers.

Robert Bosch member of the board of management Dirk Hoheisel said: “Local clouds are ideally suited to fast vehicle-to-vehicle communication for hazard warnings and for cooperative and coordinated driving maneuvers.”

By 2020, the three companies intend to expand the cellular technology and corresponding connected driving functions, which are part of their 5G network launch, thereby enabling higher levels of automated driving.

The objective is to develop a solution, which will enable vehicles to communicate with each other via a server, in either a central or local cloud, depending on the requirement.

Nokia head of IoT connectivity Adolfo Masini said: “We at Nokia believe that connected cars and autonomous driving will be a key part of a connected society.

"We are excited to work with Bosch and Deutsche Telekom to make this a reality using Mobile Edge Computing technology and thereby improving road safety.”

"Local clouds are ideally suited to fast vehicle-to-vehicle communication for hazard warnings and for cooperative and coordinated driving maneuvers."

As part of this new collaboration, the German electronics company Bosch will be responsible for functions such as the intersection assistant and the electronic brake light, together with their implementation in the vehicle and on the server, both in the local cloud as well as through integration into a central cloud.

The German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom will provide cellphone masts, cellular network, and the base station.

The Finnish telecommunications company Nokia will supply the requisite MEC software and hardware for the local cloud, thereby enabling low latency communication between cars and cloud.

Image: A diagram of the local cloud-based solution. Photo: courtesy of Robert Bosch GmbH.