Continental shows off holistic connectivity car

Cars of the future will connect drivers with their home, work and entertainment, while enhancing safety and productivity, says Continental. The German group is showing off its holistic connectivity car at the ITS World Congress this week – and believes its features could be in widespread use in five years’ time.
October 6, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Opening doors: Christian Bouchard (left) and Pascal Clochard

Cars of the future will connect drivers with their home, work and entertainment, while enhancing safety and productivity, says 260 Continental. The German group is showing off its holistic connectivity car at the ITS World Congress this week – and believes its features could be in widespread use in five years’ time.

“The technology is not the problem,” explains Jean-Yves le Gall, International Design Manager, Continental Automotive Systems. “It is connected to the digital environment. You need critical mass, enough users.” As well as accessing online services and apps in the car – with preferences and individual settings of devices seamlessly transferred into the vehicle - the driver can also connect in-car to systems such as home heating.

Continental’s concept car also features an automated voice interface which is sophisticated enough to question whether the driver really wants the climate control to be changed, for instance. “That sort of dialogue sounds natural and is of more value to the user,” le Gall suggests. “If we want people to accept the service, it must not be too intrusive.”

The vehicle system can also authenticate individual drivers through face recognition, rendering it less of a target for thieves. Increasing digitalization and connectivity allows the usage of new data sources for intelligent management of transport – and as part of this smart mobility ecosystem, partnering with other companies gives them access to richer customer profile data too.

Related Content

  • January 18, 2012
    Cellular communications drive the way forward for tolling
    For more than 20 years prior to joining the ITS industry, Mike Payne of Idris, part of Federal Signal Technologies, worked for Vodafone - the world's biggest mobile operator. Here, he considers how the road tolling sector can grow and learn from the cellular industry. The global cellphone has been one of the most successful collaborative technology projects in the last 30 years. Mobile phone technology developed throughout the 20th century with the first public service in the early 70s. This was followed by
    Read More
  • January 16, 2012
    Dutch survey shows drivers are in favour of road user charging
    'Keep it simple, stupid' is an oft-forgotten axiom but in terms of road user charging it is entirely appropriate. So says the ANWB's Ferry Smith. A couple of decades ago, it might have been largely true that the technology aspects of advanced road infrastructure were the main obstacles to deployment. However, 20 years or more of development have led to a situation where such 'obstacles' are often no more than a political fig-leaf. Area-wide Road User Charging (RUC) is a case in point; speak candidly to syst
    Read More
  • April 25, 2012
    Debating contactless toll charging by smartphone
    Developments in the mass transit sector could provide indicators of potential for greater use of mobile consumer electronic devices for charging and tolling, according to Consult Hyperion’s Mike Burden. However, opinion among toll system suppliers is divided. Jason Barnes reports The combination of mass-market devices and their protocols, typified by smartphones featuring near field communication (NFC), points to some exciting cross-fertilisation possibilities in the charging and tolling sector, says Consul
    Read More
  • June 4, 2018
    Whim launch in Birmingham: new day dawning
    MaaS Global’s Whim mobility service is expanding with its first launch outside Finland – and has chosen the UK’s second city as its base. Adam Hill reports from Birmingham
    Read More

Highlighted Content