Bosch’s infotainment domain computer is powerful brain for digital cockpits of the future

In a world of thin and light laptops, tablets and phones, tech consumers are spoiled with computing power and form factor. In most cases, these gadgets are fully integrated and can do everything we imagine all in a neat little package.

We’ve come to expect the same from our cars. We want our infotainment systems and digital cockpits to be neat, integrated, intuitive and powerful. But getting there isn’t so simple, it requires specialist, complex and high-powered computers, dedicated for the task at hand.

What’s more, carmakers need to be able to use computing hardware in more than one vehicle, it needs to scale and support many screens, sensor arrays and more than one in-car system or digital cockpit.

Making a car’s infotainment system isn’t as simple as slapping a tablet on the dashboard and attempting to connect everything up. It’s safe to say the computers that will bring digital cockpits of the future to life are far from simple.

Take Bosch’s infotainment domain computer for example. Announced at CES this year, Bosch says its infotainment domain computer is what’s going to “enable advanced in-vehicle features quickly and efficiently.”

“Infotainment domain computer” is a bit of a complex name, but essentially the processing unit is designed to connect all facets of the in-vehicle experience to the rest of the vehicle. That’s not a simple task when you think about how advanced modern cars are. There are hundreds if not thousands of sensors, voice assistants, touchscreens, hardware control buttons, various displays, cameras, speakers… the list could go on.