German industrial giant Continental have introduced at CES a system they are labelling as ‘Holistic Connectivity’. With EURO1.9 billion in sensor sales annually, Continental hopes to play its part in reducing the road toll with this concept.
While still working hard with Turo and Avis on remote cloud vehicle keys (especially helpful in ride sharing) and acknowledging the duality of our vehicle fleet (privately owned vehicles for fun and shared vehicles for essential transport), Continental are using CES to launch a system of sensors for intersections and street lamps. Company executives explained that it takes 20 years for the vehicle fleet to rotate. That means a lot of time when the road is shared with connected and non-connected vehicles. To get around this problem, the Continental system of Smart intersection and street lamps allows connected vehicles to ‘see’ and adapt to the non-connected fleet. This is clever and another example of tech companies really nailing down useful advances, rather than simply showing off.
Continental also took this opportunity to show some advancements in heavy vehicle ‘platooning’. Using autonomous vehicle sensors, heavy vehicles can bunch up and travel closely together at high speed, resulting in fuel savings. I think I’ve already seen this technology on the M1.
In the short term, Continental hoping to have ‘smart doors’ adapted by vehicle manufactures. Sensors prevent the door being opened all the way if an obstacle is detected, preventing door dings! Hallelujah! Sign me up now!
[ces19]
