The Cell Phone Stays in Your Pocket: Continental Presents an Integrated Concept for Connected Services

• Information is displayed directly on the cockpit instrument, and the connection between motorbike and cloud is made by the smartphone
• Open concept: OEM-specific services, and services from third-party providers such as turn-by-turn navigation, can be integrated using a newly developed app
• Early warning system: Continental’s eHorizon service identifies potential hazards
• Everything’s integrated: Continental offers, in addition to cloud, app and service integration, a scalable instrument development platform

Villingen-Schwenningen, 25 October. Many motorcyclists fasten a smartphone in the cockpit, so they can use its navigation services. The problem with that: the display can be hard to read if the light falls unfavorably, it often obscures some of the instruments, it’s usually not watertight – and as a rule it’s just scrap if it comes away during the ride. At EICMA 2019 (hall 9, booth O68) in Milan, Continental is now presenting a connected services solution for bikes where the smartphone can also be used – but the biker can leave it in a pocket. All it’s for is to make the connection between the motorbike and the services hosted in the Continental.cloud.

The information on the services used appears on the display of the cockpit instrument. The range of connected services is concentrated in a new app designed by Continental. It can be configured very individually, to offer motorbike manufacturers maximum flexibility. OEM-specific services and services from third-party providers, such as turn-by-turn navigation or music players, can be integrated directly into this app. “Our new connectivity concept for bikes is very end-customer-oriented and can be implemented quickly and inexpensively. It offers the makers the opportunity to provide the motorbike with attractive services using simple means,” says René Körner, in charge of connected services for motorbikes at the Intelligent Transportation Systems business segment.

One of these services can also be the new cloud service for bikes presented by Continental at the Milan show: the predictive eHorizon that warns the biker of potential hazards on the road ahead.

Continental acts here as a one-stop shop for the OEMs. It includes MultiViu Sports Plus in its bike range – a scalable instrument development platform with a 4.3 to 7 inch TFT display. “Continental offers knowhow on almost every aspect of the motorbike and can draw on its expertise in the car field,” says René Körner. “Our customers get a system solution from a single source: we arrange the display, configure the app, integrate the required services, and manage and host those services using our cloud.” The high flexibility of the new Continental solution is due to the open design of the app and to its connectivity by smartphone. “The app acts as a kind of service container with contents that can be individualized for our customers. And using the smartphone means that later service upgrades or the launch of new services are very easy to do,” continues René Körner.

In addition to the system presented at EICMA, now ready for series development, Continental already has a further connected-services solution in the pipeline. The key element in this technology is the Connected Infotainment Box (CIB), permitting direct data exchange between the bike and the cloud.

The road is unfamiliar and the weather changeable – so who wouldn’t want to know in advance how slippery the surface is in the next bend, and whether to expect aquaplaning or heavy rain further down the road? The eHorizon for motorbikes, presented by Continental as a concept study at EICMA, enables riders to see far enough ahead. To assess the condition of the road surface, weather data is also analyzed, together with information on the characteristics and geometry of the road. That’s supplemented by the data from the Road Condition Observer. This “swarm-intelligent system” uses technologies already present in vehicles, such as Electronic Stability Control (ESC) or camera systems, to classify road conditions as dry, wet, very wet (risk of aquaplaning), snowy or icy. Based on that information, dynamic friction charts can be created and then used to forecast how well the tires will grip the road stretch in question.

Here you will find more information about Continental at EICMA 2019.

Einer dieser Dienste kann auch der neue Cloud-Service für Zweiräder sein, den Continental auf der Mailänder Messe vorstellt: der vorausschauende eHorizon, der den Fahrer vor potenziellen Gefahren auf vorausliegenden Streckenabschnitten warnt.