bosch

Battery-management chips enable stop-start

Battery-management chips illustrate how sophisticated electronic control units are proliferating in cars.

Most vehicles already have some form of battery management system in place. At the very least, it monitors the battery's charging and discharging, and how much of a charge the battery has left.

"It really just takes a smart controller to manage the battery," says Kyle Williams, director of automotive systems integration at Robert Bosch LLC.

More intelligent controls can prioritize power demand from multiple electronic devices.

Take fuel-saving stop-start systems, which are spreading rapidly across vehicle lines in Europe and making inroads in North … Read more

Blend with less mess

My family loves soup--as long as there aren't any chunks in their bowls that might be vegetables. Any time I make a pot, I get the fun of pouring hot soup into the blender, pureeing it and then pouring it out. Not only do I have a pot to clean up afterward, I have the blender and all its bits and pieces.

Immersion blenders make this whole process much simpler. All you have to do is stick the immersion blender in the pot and turn it on. Less mess, automatically. The Bosch MIXXO hand blender is an ideal immersion … Read more

The new brewer that's creating a big buzz

Featured at the House Beautiful Kitchen of the Year event in Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, the new Tassimo Hot Beverage System by Bosch fits into both the kitchen's overall theme of user-friendliness and the consumer's modern desire for convenience with class. The brewer is featured as part of a line of new kitchen products that are being showcased as a "new benchmark for kitchen design," according to a recent news release from Kraft Foods.

At first glance, the upgraded version of the Hot Beverage System looks a lot like the original, but there are … Read more

Current trend in Europe: Electric cars

Spurred by tough environmental rules and high fuel prices, European automakers and suppliers have launched a bevy of electric-vehicle programs.

-- Daimler said it will bring an electric version of its Smart minicar to market in 2010. The company also is considering electric versions of Mercedes-Benz A- and B-class cars.

-- PSA/Peugeot-Citroen, in partnership with Mitsubishi, said it aims to produce electric models in two years.

-- Renault plans to sell electric cars in Denmark by 2011. The French company is working with its Nissan affiliate and the Japanese battery manufacturer NEC.

-- Bosch, the world's largest auto … Read more

No more excuses: Now you can wash Legos

We couldn't agree with Slashgear more on this one: As any parent knows, kids are filthy. They are sand-eating, dirt-grubbing bacterial magnets.

Despite the universality of this fact, we're still surprised that, of all companies, Bosch gets it. We just couldn't envision its black-turtlenecked German designers surrounded by germ-infested toddlers. But at least some people at the high-end company must understand what rug rodents are about, because they designed this Lego-safe dishwasher that can clean the toy bricks without melting them into plastic blobs. And because it's Bosch, we're relieved to say, the appliances won'… Read more