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

  • SCATS study shows significant savings
    December 16, 2013
    Australian study quantifies the benefits of SCATS to the motorists, the environment and the economy. Opportunity weekday cost savings potential of some AUD16 million (US$15.2 million) has emerged from rigorous analysis of a one-day study of Australia’s Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) in operation. This represents 27% of the total cost of a real alternative semi-adaptive traffic control. The estimated indicative annual weekday-based value is AUD3,900 million (US$3,705 million) or 0.9% of t
    Read More
  • Traffic tech firms: save the planet!
    May 20, 2022
    Kapsch, Yunex and Swarco pen passionate open letter to World Economic Forum delegates
    Read More
  • Mobility as a Service gaining traction in US and Europe
    December 15, 2015
    As Mobility as a Service starts to move into the mainstream of transport planning, David Crawford compares European and North American initiatives. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a concept fast gaining traction on both sides of the Atlantic as a way of giving travellers digital multimodal one-stop shops and journey planning tools as an alternative to private car use. Planned delivery methods include subscription-based travel packages in Europe, and 'mobility aggregator' apps, including employee commute ben
    Read More
  • Covid-19 cleared the air: ITS can keep it clean
    July 31, 2020
    Covid-19 has created cleaner air: ITS can help keep it that way – but it’s not going to be straightforward, as Graham Anderson discovers
    Read More

Highlighted Content