Foreca predicts the weather for automated cars

Bosch plans to roll out its road-condition services worldwide in 2020 and chose Foreca as its partner after examining several leading road weather providers and finding the Finnish experts to be the most accurate.

The road-condition services will inform automated cars in good time what environmental conditions to expect, so the vehicles can adapt their driving style instead of handing back control to the driver whenever road conditions are impaired.

“Wet roads, snow, ice – with our predictive road-condition services we alert to hazards before critical situations can develop,” says Bosch management board member, Dr. Dirk Hoheisel. “We are helped here by the weather data provided by our partner Foreca. This means an automated vehicle will know exactly where it can drive autonomously, and how.”

The road-condition services will initially rely on constantly updated global road weather data from Foreca, but as more connected cars take to the roads they will be improved with data from the vehicles.