Bosch Road Hazard Service protects against road risks

Thick fog, heavy rain or a vehicle that has broken down behind a bend: sudden events can have far-reaching consequences on the road. The Road Hazard Service from Bosch provides drivers with real-time information about potential hazards on the route and thereby reduces the risk of accidents. Since June 2024, the service has been used millions of times in the passenger car fleet of a German automobile manufacturer in Europe. Now Bosch is also bringing the service to the commercial vehicle segment: From December 2024, the service will be available in the first trucks from Mercedes-Benz Trucks. The next goal is to further roll out the service worldwide for cars and trucks.

Critical road conditions can be predicted precisely based on anonymized data from a global customer fleet of several million vehicles as well as from third-party providers such as weather services or road operators. The vehicles in the fleet equipped with the service provide various information, including local outside temperature, activity of the windshield wipers and rear fog lights, as well as ESP anti-skid control interventions or accident reports.

Compare fleet data

For example, if there are vehicles in the fleet that have their windshield wipers set to the highest level, the service also compares the information with that of selected weather services – for example, whether it is raining or how many millimeters of water are recorded on the road. A fusion algorithm then determines whether there is a risk of aquaplaning, for example. The service then warns the drivers so that they can reduce their speed if necessary.

Another example: If the driver’s visibility threatens to fall below a critical level, the service compares this with the activity of the rear fog lights of the vehicles in the affected region and decides whether a warning is necessary. The wrong-way driver warning from Bosch complements the service. If there is a wrong-way driver nearby or the driver is driving in the wrong direction, a warning appears directly on the navigation display.

Part of Connected Map Services

The Road Hazard Service is part of the Connected Map Services, also Bosch’s networked map services for greater safety and comfort in the vehicle. The swarm data and weather information can also be used to optimize driver assistance systems such as adaptive cruise control or automatic emergency braking. This is because the road’s friction coefficient is lower on wet or slippery roads than on dry roads. The vehicle must therefore initiate emergency braking sooner to avoid a possible accident.

For assisted and automated driving, Connected Map Services act as an additional sensor that looks far beyond the field of vision and range of radar and video sensors and provides the automated vehicle with all relevant data for safe driving, even in poor visibility conditions. This is because networked map services benefit from the sum of the experiences of all connected vehicles. Attributes such as the optimal driving speed in a roundabout, the exact lane geometry and driving trajectory at confusing intersections or localization landmarks that the vehicle can use to locate itself with centimeter precision can be derived from this.