Skip to main content

Continental invests in EasyMile, pushes ahead with autonomous vehicles

Technology company Continental has agreed to acquire a minority share French autonomous shuttle manufacturer EasyMile and the companies plan to cooperate closely in the development of environmental sensors, braking systems and driving safety technologies.
July 5, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

Technology company 260 Continental has agreed to acquire a minority share French autonomous shuttle manufacturer 8246 EasyMile and the companies plan to cooperate closely in the development of environmental sensors, braking systems and driving safety technologies.

Continental believes that autonomous shuttles are set to play a key role in efficiently addressing the ‘first mile – last mile’ challenge, enabling seamless mobility services for urban mobility.

Continental says its investment opens the door to numerous possible applications within EasyMile shuttles worldwide, while incorporating tried and tested large-scale production techniques from the automotive field. The EasyMile EZ10 fleet will be running on Continental EcoContact tyres with optimised tread geometry, ensuring low rolling resistance and rolling noise.

The complex requirements of driverless vehicles are already being studied under real conditions at Continental’s premises in Frankfurt with its development platform CUbE (Continental Urban mobility Experience), which is based on an EasyMile EZ10 shuttle.

The EasyMile EZ10 shuttle is a twelve-person autonomous shuttle first released in 2014, which has been deployed in more than 50 cities across 17 countries in Asia-Pacific, North America, the Middle East and Europe. Continental began testing automated systems on public roads in 2012 in Nevada, USA. The company now has a global operating fleet of development vehicles in Germany, the USA, Japan and China.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Cut freight deliveries – improve Southampton’s air quality
    November 23, 2018
    Taking the pressure off cities’ road networks can have a beneficial effect on the environment. David Crawford looks at a new economic model which seeks to quantify the societal effect of freight traffic in Southampton, one of the UK’s five most polluted cities Cuts of 60% or more in volumes of freight deliveries are being predicted - along with badly-needed improvements in air quality - from a load consolidation scheme currently being introduced in the UK port city of Southampton. The forecasts are based o
  • Schrader claims top spot for TPMS
    March 23, 2012
    Schrader, a manufacturer of tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS), has announced that the company’s innovative EZ-sensor technology now covers more than 82 per cent of all TPMS-equipped vehicles in North America.
  • Leonardo addresses new mobility trends
    October 19, 2022
    Italy-headquartered Leonardo outlines why, and how, the company is at the forefront of more effective, efficient, and sustainable mobility - a top European priority - through investments in the Next Generation EU programme, aimed at achieving energy and climatic objectives.
  • Global road safety market expected to reach US$5.73 billion by 2019
    March 26, 2015
    The latest report by Marketsandmarkets, "Road Safety Market by Types (Highways and Bridges Safety, Urban Roads Safety and Tunnels Safety) & Systems (Red Light Enforcement, Speed Limit Enforcement, Bus Lane Enforcement, Communication, Incident Detection) - Worldwide Market Forecast (2014-2019)", indicates that the road safety market is expected to grow from US$3.37 billion in 2014 to US$5.73 billion in 2019, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.2 per cent from 2014 to 2019. In terms of regions,