Both German suppliers have invested heavily on research and development in the fields of autonomous driving, autonomous vehicles, infrastructure, and mobility, however, Bosch’s strategy and approach is quite different from the one from Siemens.

Siemens, the German multinational supplier started its acquisition ventures in the field of autonomous vehicles long before Bosch. By acquiring Tass International and Tass’s PreScan technology back in 2017, the company was able to offer its automotive customer base with solutions on automotive simulations in the ADAS and autonomous driving field.  

However, Tass International was integrated with Siemens Product Life Management (PLM) business providing engineering and simulation solutions to Siemens’ customers.

Siemens PLM Simcenter Platform

Source: Siemens

Also back in 2017, the company acquired Mentor Graphics, a US based electronic design company for electrical and electronics engineering. Mentor Graphics wide portfolio of Real Time Operating Systems and solutions for autonomous driving was one of the main reasons that Siemens decided to go forward with the acquisition. Mentor Graphics was later integrated at Siemens EDA (Electronic Design Automation) software, hardware, and services business.

In September 2021, Siemens launched a start-up venture for simulating machine learning systems in autonomous vehicles and industrial automation.

The start-up is focused on accelerating autonomous mobility deployment at scale with reliable synthetic data. Simulytic aims to use simulation tools and digital twins to create insight into the impact and safety of autonomous driving.

Simulytic, based in Munich, is already applying Siemens’ experience in the simulation of complex, automated systems and in the use of artificial intelligence in safety-critical applications. Siemens already builds digital twins of vehicles with simulation through the Pave 360 tools and Siemens EDA technology.

Siemens Simulytic AG Venture

Source: Siemens

The common theme with Siemens’ acquisitions and ventures is that the companies and ventures are heavily integrated and fully absorbed into the company’s core business services, not letting the acquired companies to flourish within the Siemens arm.

The capabilities that Siemens has in the space of vehicle autonomy are, to a degree, siloed in different divisions. It may be difficult to create a truly compelling solution in this scenario.

In 2022, Bosch is ramping up strategic investments for what it envisions autonomous driving will be. The first and second quarter of 2022, saw the German Tier 1 supplier, Robert Bosch, been quite active in the field of autonomous vehicles. Notably, the company has acquired two prominent start-ups in the research and development of HD mapping and autonomous driving features. Those start-ups are the UK-based Five AI focusing on simulations, testing, validation, and verification of autonomous vehicles and German-based Atlatec focusing on the creation of HD maps and crowdsourced mapping for ADAS and autonomous driving.

Bosch wants to control both the mapping and autonomous driving stack, as well as partner with as many automakers and Tier 1s as possible.

Bosch is trying to become more strategic when it comes to acquisition and next phases of autonomous driving development. With its driver assistance systems, hardware and sensor technologies, Bosch wants to lay the foundation for all the levels of automation.

The acquisitions of Five AI and Atlatec will play a key role in the Bosch Cross-Domain Computing Solutions division. These acquisitions will strengthen Bosch’s agile project structure for the development of autonomous driving vehicles. The two teams’ software engineering environments will be merged to form a single solution.

Unlike Siemens, Bosch gives more autonomy for its acquired start-ups to work at the technologies and platforms that were meant to develop and products that want to produce, while being some sort of decision maker when the teams have a solution to promote or explore.

For more information on the current business strategy and acquisitions of Bosch, please refer to this Strategy Analytics insight: Bosch Acquires Five AI: Gains an Instant Improvement on Cloud Software Services for Simulations and Autonomous Vehicle Validation

For more information into Siemen’s autonomous driving platforms in simulations and Digital Twin’s, please refer to this report by Strategy Analytics: Autonomous Vehicle Simulations: Why a Digital Twin is Needed in the Autonomous Vehicle Ecosystem