Connecting to the future: Continental Presents Holistic Connectivity Demo Car

• At the ITS World Congress, Continental presents its Holistic Connectivity demo car.
• Big data and on-board data: Connected services understand the context of the driver’s condition and even anticipate user action.
• Demo applications include the illustration of a gas and service station of the future as well as a rich-media and smart-home-based connection to the driver’s home.

Bordeaux, October 13, 2015. On the ITS World Congress, Continental presents a demonstrator car applying new principles and ideas for the connected car: From context based services and an intuitive HMI up to an IP-based architecture Continental’s Holistic Connectivity demo car provides insight into technologies and services for the fully connected vehicle.

This vehicle will impact a great variety of technologies from vehicle electronics, to services up to a big data analytics. With the so called holistic connectivity vehicle, Continental demonstrates solutions to enable the intelligent future of mobility. The vehicle is becoming part of the internet - it is changing from a closed to an open system.

To enable real value added services, connected cars have to learn about context: What is the current condition of the car and especially its driver? How does the car’s environment affect functions and services? This important next step can be achieved by integrating on-board data, ranging from the car’s diagnostic systems up to a wide range of sensors, with cloud-based information like highly accurate traffic information or the results of big data algorithms.

In the Holistic Connectivity car the user is always connected to his or her digital environment. The car offers intelligent functions which understand the context and can even anticipate user interaction. An intuitive Human-Machine Interface (HMI) is a central part of the concept: Thanks to a large display that provides a reconfigurable visual interface as well as a natural and adaptive voice dialogue, the user enjoys a rich and convenient, while at the same time safe, experience of connected services.

The demonstrated context-based services include the illustration of a “Gas and Service Station of the Future” that is implemented with the contribution of Total: The Holistic Connectivity car will not only inform the driver when it needs to refill on gasoline, but will also communicate additional needs like replenishing oil or tire pressure. As part of a two-way communication, the gas station will be able to advertise special offers,   for example discounts on a car wash, on the car’s head-unit display.

Another example for connected services is the “Clever Home to Intelligent Vehicle” platform. It will present rich information from the driver’s home on the car’s display, enabling applications like presenting the image of a parcel deliverer who is ringing at the home’s door bell. The platform is also able to recognize patterns in the driver’s daily routines which can be used in order to control smart home features like room temperature or lighting.

Further possible use cases of the platform include remote vehicle monitoring for applications like remote diagnostics or predictive maintenance, as well as easy and secure car access based on a virtual key and secure driver identification concept. Many additional applications are possible and can be developed in close cooperation with the car manufacturers and their partners.

“The Holistic Connectivity demonstrates value added services that will transform the user experience while at the same time allowing the development of new business models”, says Seval Oz, CEO at Continental Intelligent Transportation Systems, LLC. “The Holistic Connectivity car and the services delivered via its platform will support a shared transportation economy that facilitates completely new revenue opportunities to car makers and their partners.”

Technically, Continental’s Holistic Connectivity demo car is based on the latest technologies and communication standards. Its networking architecture is fully IP-based, its service delivery framework uses HTML5, and the secured connectivity is provided over the high-performance 4G mobile communications network.

„Using the latest technologies, our basic goal is to make the interaction between the driver and the car much less distracting and much more natural”, explains Ralf Lenninger, Senior Vice President Interior Electronics Solutions at Continental Automotive. “Thus, while providing rich and useful services, we contribute at the same time to making driving safer and less stressful. With Continental’s Holistic Connectivity car, the Internet of Everything clearly has reached the automotive world.” Thus, this concept and platform provides advantages both to the users and to car makers and service providers.