Daimler, Bosch teaming up for self-driving car service

As self-driving vehicle experiments are launched in a few cities around the U.S., Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler and a prominent auto supplier are launching a new one in the place that would seem most receptive: Silicon Valley.

Daimler and auto components maker Bosch will start a self-driving vehicle shuttle service in one of the cities south of San Francisco that has been the heart of the nation’s tech industry beginning in the second half of 2019.

The move marks a concrete step forward for a partnership announced in April 2017 with the ultimate goal of delivering a self-driving car by 2021.

Daimler and Bosch will begin their service as a pilot project offering rides for free on “selected routes” to a limited number of customers, said Uwe Keller, head of autonomous driving for Daimler.

The partners also did not reveal the exact location of the pilot, saying they are still in negotiations with city officials.

“The most urgent and difficult work is to develop a system which will work reliably, safely, daytime and nighttime under all circumstances and conditions,” said Michael Fausten, head of urban autonomous driving for Bosch. “

The service would join several other real-world autonomous vehicle pilot projects open to the public in the U.S. Companies conducting tests in cities so far include: ❚ Waymo. Google’s former self-driving car project is offering self-driving car rides in the Phoenix area and is set to expand its offering to Atlanta.

❚ General Motors. The nation’s largest automaker plans to offer a similar service in undisclosed cities in 2019.

❚ Uber. The ride-hailing service has some autonomous cars in Pittsburgh offering rides to passengers, though the company recently ended its Arizona program after a woman was killed when the vehicle and safety driver failed to notice her crossing the street at night.

In addition to these major projects, there are multiple other limited-scope autonomous vehicle shuttles in various locations throughout the U.S.

Keller said it’s too early to say how many vehicles will be involved in the Daimler-Bosch project.

Engineers are testing autonomous technologies on Mercedes S-Class luxury sedans and other vehicles, but it’s unclear which will be featured in the pilot project.

Daimler and Bosch already have engineers working together in Silicon Valley and around Stuttgart, Germany, where they are collaborating on selfdriving vehicle technologies.

The pilot will be offered through an entity called Daimler Mobility Services.

Daimler and Bosch picked hightech data processing company Nvidia as a key supplier for the project.

It’s unclear which Mercedes vehicle will be involved in the project. DAIMLER