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.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • The future looks bright for ITS
    June 4, 2015
    Professor Eric Sampson talks about the past successes of ITS, its potential for the future and the challenges the industry faces. If anybody should know when Intelligent Transport Systems started that person is Professor Eric Sampson, a visiting professor at both Newcastle and London City Universities. Having spent 40 years working for the UK’s Department of Transport and other public administrations, Professor Sampson now supports the European Commission on ITS systems and advises ERTICO ITS-Europe and ITS
    Read More
  • Smart Cities: a journey, not a destination
    June 30, 2021
    As technologies evolve, cities of the future should prepare for expansion by establishing scal­able systems, suggest Benjamin Ho and James Birdsall of Parsons
    Read More
  • An innovation lab – not a burden
    June 27, 2018
    Travellers want to be able to book multimodal journeys easily – and to be informed of problems and alternatives as they go. Adam Roark might just be able to help, finds Ben Spencer. The global shift in transportation towards members of the public wanting access to multimodal journeys is rapidly changing how people pay and plan ahead. Buying tickets from a machine and dealing with the frustration of discovering your train is cancelled is a scenario commuters want to avoid through technology’s ability to
    Read More
  • Safety issues fuel interest at PIARC’s tunnel conference in Lyon
    December 5, 2018
    1999’s fatal Mont Blanc fire means safety is a constant concern for tunnel operators. Alternative fuels and automated vehicles were also high on the agenda at PIARC’s first conference on the issue. David Arminas reports from Lyon – and walks the Croix-Rousse tunnel More than ever, tunnel management must be done in a holistic fashion. That was the message from André Broto, president of the World Road Associa-tion (PIARC) as he kicked off PIARC’s first International Conference on Tunnel Operations and Safe
    Read More

Highlighted Content