Burney Simpson

Tier 1 auto technology firm Continental Corp. this month moved quietly but confidently to strengthen its leading position in the global development of autonomous driving.

Continental participated in the recent driverless demo in Virginia that received international press coverage, driving its own Chrysler 300c right behind the Cadillac SRX that Virginia Tech Transportation Institute researchers took for a spin near Washington, D.C. (See “Virginia Seeks Autonomous Research Lead,” October 20).

The black Chrysler’s autonomous technology included five radars and six cameras, along with Redundant Sensing and Actuation Architecture that doubles brake, steering, power and communication lines so the car can continue driving safely if there is any failure of the primary controls.

The camera system operates a forward-facing stereo camera, a surround view camera system that includes four 185-degree field of view fish-eye cameras, and a Driver Analyzer camera focusing on the driver.

Ibro Muharemovic, Continental’s head of advanced engineering NAFTA, noted that Continental had already tested an early-driverless vehicle for about 55,000 miles on U.S. roads in 2012. This precedes the highly publicized cross-country drive that Continental rival tier 1 supplier Delphi took this spring.

Continental is currently testing its autonomous vehicles in a number of states, and “when other states make their roads available, we will go there,’ said Muharemovic.

Also this month, Hanover, Germany-based Continental launched its Holistic Connectivity demo vehicle at the ITS World Congress in Bordeuax, France. Drivers can use the Human-Machine Interface in the car’s console to obtain by voice or visual interaction the vehicle diagnostic data along with traffic information. Drivers can also make commands to their home systems, allowing for the control of temperature and lighting.

In addition, Continental announced that Augmented Reality (AR) Creator software developr Elektrobit Automotive would operate as a standalone company. Continental purchased Elektrobit in July. AR Creator offers visualized lane positioning, navigation data, environmental modeling, and other autonomous-related capabilities.