More new cars in the UK feature park assistance systems as standard

• In 2017, 43% of all newly registered cars in the UK had an automatic emergency braking system on board and 68% featured parking assist systems.
• Dr. Dirk Hoheisel: “Driver assistance systems aren’t just cool gadgets that make driving more convenient – they can save lives.”

Remote parking, automatic lane-keeping support, drowsiness detection: these are just some of the many features that buyers of new cars no longer want to do without. Installation rates of driver assistance systems are rising steadily. “More and more car buyers want a vehicle that anticipates and even intervenes in driving manoeuvres,” says Dr. Dirk Hoheisel, member of the Bosch board of management. And whether proximity alarms, parking assists, or reversing cameras there is an increasing uptake of Smart parking technologies as standard equipment across all vehicle segments in the UK Market. These are the findings from a Bosch evaluation of the 2017 statistics on newly registered cars.

EU plans to mandate emergency braking assistants

The analysis shows that parking assistance systems top the list of desired features in Germany, followed by automatic emergency braking systems. When a rear-end collision is imminent, these systems help either avoid it or mitigate its consequences. “Driver assistance systems aren’t just cool gadgets that make driving more convenient – they can save lives,” Hoheisel says. For that reason, the European Union is currently preparing legislation to mandate the installation of emergency braking systems. This is expected to mean that all new vehicle models will have to have such a system on board starting in 2022. The World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, which is part of the UNECE, has drawn up a regulation that creates the conditions for this. The forum recommends that only passenger cars featuring an emergency braking system should be marketed in the EU and other countries in the future.

The UN Economic Commission for Europe estimates that emergency braking assistants could save 1,000 lives a year in the EU. Of all the new cars registered in the UK in 2017, 43 percent were fitted with such an emergency braking system, up from 31 percent in 2016. The evaluation of statistics on newly registered cars from 2017 also revealed that, in addition to parking and braking assistance systems, two others are increasingly finding acceptance: drowsiness detection and lane-keeping functions. Nearly 25% all new cars registered can detect when the driver is drowsy, and more than one in three cars comes equipped with at least one lane-keeping system.

Driver assistance systems becoming ever more popular in Europe

However, it is not only UK car buyers who are increasingly relying on electronic assistants that make driving safer and more convenient; parking assistants and automatic emergency braking systems are increasingly making inroads in other European countries as well. For example, parking assistants are particularly popular in France: they feature in 85 percent of cars there, the highest share of such systems. Bottom of the list is Italy, with 44 percent. With regard to automatic emergency braking systems, Belgium and Germany are tied at 54 percent, while 45 percent of new cars in the Netherlands are fitted with such a system. By contrast, the share in Italy is 30 percent, and in Russia just 6 percent to date.

Driver assistance systems keep an eye on complex situations and help avoid accidents or even save lives. This is why Bosch is continuing to develop an ever expanding range of driver assistance systems that protect road users and make life easier for drivers. Arun Srinivasan Executive Vice President Bosch Mobility Solutions UK and Chairman of the charitable partnership Roadsafe stated “it is good to see the continued uptake of driver assistance systems by UK drivers and by further developing these systems, Bosch is not only contributing to safety but also creating the technical basis for Automated Driving in the future. With this expertise, the company is already one of today’s innovation leaders in many areas that are essential for automated driving: surround sensors, artificial intelligence, and the electronic control of brakes, powertrain, and steering”.

Bosch evaluation based on vehicle registration statistics for 2017

UK new passenger car registrations based on SMMT statistics reporting 2,540,617 new cars registered in 2017. Working with data from the market analyst JATO Dynamics, Bosch looked to see which driver assistance systems featured in new cars in Germany, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Russia. Bosch has been analysing the acceptance of driver assistance systems since 2013.

Additional information:

Click here for an overview of all Bosch driver assistance systems

Mobility Solutions is the largest Bosch Group business sector. According to preliminary figures, it generated sales of 47 billion euros in 2018, and thus contributed 60 percent of total sales from operations. This makes the Bosch Group one of the leading automotive suppliers. The Mobility Solutions business sector pursues a vision of mobility that is accident-free, emissions-free, and stress-free, and combines the group’s expertise in the domains of automation, electrification, and connectivity. For its customers, the outcome is integrated mobility solutions. The business sector’s main areas of activity are injection technology and powertrain peripherals for internal-combustion engines, diverse solutions for powertrain electrification, vehicle safety systems, driver-assistance and automated functions, technology for user-friendly infotainment as well as vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication, repair-shop concepts, and technology and services for the automotive aftermarket. Bosch is synonymous with important automotive innovations, such as electronic engine management, the ESP anti-skid system, and common-rail diesel technology.

The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. It employs roughly 410,000 associates worldwide (as of December 31, 2018). According to preliminary figures, the company generated sales from operations of 77.9 billion euros in 2018. Its operations are divided into four business sectors: Mobility Solutions, Industrial Technology, Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology. As a leading IoT company, Bosch offers innovative solutions for smart homes, smart cities, connected mobility, and connected manufacturing. It uses its expertise in sensor technology, software, and services, as well as its own IoT cloud, to offer its customers connected, cross-domain solutions from a single source. The Bosch Group’s strategic objective is to deliver innovations for a connected life. Bosch improves quality of life worldwide with products and services that are innovative and spark enthusiasm. In short, Bosch creates technology that is “Invented for life.” The Bosch Group comprises Robert Bosch GmbH and its roughly 440 subsidiary and regional companies in 60 countries. Including sales and service partners, Bosch’s global manufacturing, engineering, and sales network covers nearly every country in the world. The basis for the company’s future growth is its innovative strength. At 125 locations across the globe, Bosch employs some 69,500 associates in research and development.

To learn more, please visit www.bosch.com, iot.bosch.com, www.bosch-press.com, twitter.com/BoschPresse.

Heather Butcher
phone: +44 (0) 1985 838601
Heather.Butcher@uk.bosch.com