Five employs 140 associates at six locations in the United Kingdom.

Bosch, the global electronics and mobility provider, has acquired Five, Europe’s leading startup in the field of automated driving, as it eyes a major role in the development of self-driving cars. The organizations agreed on the transaction at the beginning of April, and the financial terms have not been revealed. However, Bosch said in its statement that there were other bidders, but Five selected Bosch. (Fleet Europe)

“Automated driving is set to make road traffic safer. We want Five to give an extra boost to our work in software development for safe automated driving, and offer our customers European-made technology,” said Dr. Markus Heyn, member of the Bosch board of management and chairman of the Mobility Solutions business sector.

Bosch: global leader in electronics and mobility

“Scale matters in building automated driving technology. Bosch is a global leader in driving assistance technologies, with core technologies and vast data lakes that will be essential in bringing safe self-driving systems to market. We’re excited for Five to become part of Europe’s most powerful SAE Level 4 player and to be a part of Bosch’s future success,” said Stan Boland, the CEO of Five.

Recently, Bosch acquired Atlatec GmbH, a specialist in the field of high-resolution digital maps. The acquisition of Five will consolidate its market position in software and automated driving.

“Bosch will be the only company that can offer its customers all the necessary building blocks of automated driving from a single source – from actuators, sensors, and maps to software and the engineering environment,” said Bosch.

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Image Credit: Bosch