Nexteer Automotive and Continental Announce Joint Venture in Motion Control Systems

“The motion control venture will accelerate Nexteer and Continental’s advancements in automated driving and achieve robust vehicle dynamics and safety. To that end, this team will work on braking and steering systems integration, enhanced by-wire development as well as create common safety architectures and strategies for redundant, operationally safe systems,” said Frank Lubischer, Senior Vice President of Global Engineering, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Strategy Officer for Nexteer Automotive.

Nexteer and Continental will hold an equal 50-50 percent ownership position in the joint venture.  The joint venture will focus on research and development activities including rapid evaluation, design and prototyping. Capitalizing on Nexteer and Continental’s history of innovation and leadership in the automotive industry, the joint venture will combine global resources and expertise and focus on enhancing the development of advanced motion control systems and components for automated driving.

“This arrangement will create a way for both of our companies to collaborate on integrating state-of-the-art electronic brake and steering systems to achieve ideal vehicle dynamics and safety, as well as increasing value for our shareholders,” Lubischer said.

Initially, the venture will employ team members leveraging existing technical talent from both Nexteer and Continental with plans for future growth. Pending regulatory approvals, it is expected that this project will be operational in the first quarter of 2017.

“We look forward to a collaboration which will develop breakthrough ideas to further develop systems that will improve safety as we look toward the future of automated driving,” Jourdan said.