Fresh from the cloud: European car manufacturer integrates Continental’s eHorizon services

Schwalbach, Germany/Toulouse, France, December 9, 2021. Technology company Continental will supply a major OEM with two services from its eHorizon platform, equipping several million cars over the coming years. The first service, “Maps on Demand” (MoD), will already be implemented in 2022, while the second service, “Intelligent Speed Assistant” (ISA), will follow in 2023. Both implementations will facilitate important safety use cases under real-life conditions over the coming years. “With this step, Continental makes another leap in providing its customers with tailor-made services for the mobility of tomorrow which is characterized by growing sustainability, connected services and high safety demands,” says Volkmar Knaup, who heads the Intelligent Transportation Systems business segment at Continental. eHorizon, Continental’s cloud-based end-to-end solution enables a driver to see “around the corner”, beyond the vehicle’s sensor vision by aggregating and delivering both Continental’s as well as third-party map content and connected services. This helps to improve Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), chassis as well as powertrain functions.

Both MoD and ISA deliver always-fresh information from the cloud to the vehicle. Maximum allowable speed limits, road curvatures and slopes are some of the information that enhance ADAS functions like the Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) for a smoother driving experience. An intelligent map streaming approach makes sure that the map data is never outdated. Furthermore, only the relevant parts of the map are downloaded and stored inside the vehicle minimizing the size of the embedded map and rendering it always up-to-date. “This kind of efficiency was one key aspect of the solutions,” explains Xavier Suchocki, who heads the eHorizon product segment at Continental. “The system does not need to store large amounts of embedded data or perform manual updates.”

While the data is provided through the cloud, the eHorizon services also run in areas with low or no mobile network with minimized data transfer cost. Furthermore, the EU General Safety Regulation (GSR) demands that new vehicle types are equipped with an ISA function. Based on the latest up-to-date map data, Continental’s ISA service supports indicating the legal speed limit correctly to the driver at all times.

Continental is actively working on enriching the eHorizon platform with new connected services for additional safety use cases, in line with the European New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) roadmap and beyond. “We are closely monitoring the market needs to expand our platform through services that offer our customers and their drivers real added value,” says Volkmar Knaup. One example is the Road Surface Condition (RSC) service that provides predictive information about the upcoming road weather conditions like slippery roads: “By knowing in advance how the road conditions will be ahead, vehicle functions can be enhanced, and drivers can adapt their driving style early. That way, we can reduce the number of road accidents and allow automated driving functions to work properly,” adds Xavier Suchocki.