German automotive manufacturer, Continental has become the latest to join the self-driving consortium formed by BMW, Intel, and Mobileye. Continental joins as a system integrator.
As systems integrator, Continental will play a key role in industrialising the platform for other automotive manufacturers and ensure the joint solutions are brought to market more quickly.
In February 2017, BMW, Intel and Mobileye announced their intention to bring a fleet of 40 self-driving BMW 7 Series cars to the roads by the second half of this year in preparation for the introduction of the BMW iNEXT in 2021.
By joining the collaboration, Continental will reportedly deliver function development and integration of automated systems, such as driver monitoring and motion control. This will be combined with simulation and validation of all added functions.
Frank Jourdan, board member of the Continental corporation and head of the division chassis & safety, explianed: “In the past we had positive experiences with BMW collaborations. The corporation with the two other partners offer us a unique chance to bring these new future technologies on the road much faster.
“Alongside with our partners we can tackle more efficiently research and development tasks, to make the generations of the upcoming technologies reality. On top of that, we make with our collaboration the solutions for our customers and consumers affordable.”
And Karl Haupt, division manager advanced driver assistance systems at Continental, added: “These kinds of partnerships have a clear advantage regarding the complexity of the involved technologies. We don’t have to invent new solutions, and we can draw on our partners’ knowledge and on technological examples which have been proven in reality on the street.”
According to Continental, the complexity of technical problems in the field of automated driving is huge. A clear advantage of the Hanover-based company is its widespread range of services. The portfolio covers sensors, environmental models, driving functions, system architectures, functional safety, brake systems, tyres, powertrain control models, systems for man-machine dialoge and computer system validation.
One of Continental’s fast-growing markets is advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) – worth more than €1.2bn in 2016, part of which are multifunction cameras, fish-eye cameras, as well as close-range and remote sensors. Another segment is high-def 3D-LiDAR technologies and central controllers for assisted and automated driving.
