"Automobile giants like General Motors, Ford open doors to third-party developers to create apps, much like Google & Apple"

Bosch Ltd.

BANGALORE: At the world's largest auto component supplier's engineering centre in Bangalore, engineers are hard at work on a software that they believe will dictate the future of the automobile industry. The engineering and electronics major Bosch developed a code with which developers can now create applications for cars which aid driving, similar to the ones that run on smartphones. 

 

What these engineers are doing reflects a major shift - inspired by the success of Apple and Google - taking place in the automotive industry. The usually cagey automakers are opening up innovation platforms for third-party developers. 

By doing so, carmakers like General Motors and Ford are creating an app ecosystem so that buyers can tap into the computing power within a car. These apps help drivers cruise and

navigate better, tell them about the weather and lift in-car entertainment. 

What's aiding the creation of this ecosystem is the amount of semiconductor embedded in a modern vehicle. With 150-200 chips in a car, lots of applications can be built -- from those that monitor weather more accurately to ones that improve mileage and provide driving assistance. 

Bosch's software, called Busmaster, can plug into an automobile's nervous system, the CAN bus, and receive messages from scores of electronic control units. The CAN bus -- an acronym for the controller area network bus -- transfers data between the electronic control units. The electronic units, in turn, control or monitor various functions like wiper blades and power windows. 

All a developer has to do is download the software from the Net and hook up to the automobile's on-board diagnostic port. Rajesh Puttaswamy, an engineer at Bosch, and members of the company's open source community have built an app called The Eco Buddy using Google's Android operating system. The app uses data retrieved from the car's CAN bus to analyse how good the driver is. It rates his gear shifting pattern, braking and acceleration aspects to predict how well he drove the car. 

Such applications are expected to be the norm. "This is a sign of things to come," says Sri Krishnan V, vice-president, engineering unit, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions. "The business model in auto industry is evolving rapidly. Everybody wants to emulate what is happening in consumer electronics.