Continental has announced a partnership with Google Cloud. Together, the two companies are bringing artificial intelligence (AI) to the car. Continental is thus one of the first automotive suppliers to integrate applications from Google Cloud directly into vehicle computers. With their help, drivers enter into a natural dialog with their vehicles. For example, they can ask for the right tire pressure for the vehicle when it is fully loaded or, on vacation, for information on points of interest on the route or at the destination. The underlying generative AI compiles the information needed and can answer the drivers’ questions. The two companies each bring their expertise in the fields of automotive, software, AI and cloud computing to the partnership.
“Together with Google, we are bringing artificial intelligence into the vehicle cockpit and creating an intuitive user experience for drivers. Based on our Smart Cockpit high-performance computer, production readiness is possible in just 18 months of development. This is how our vision of the software-defined vehicle is starting to become reality,” said Philipp von Hirschheydt, member of the Continental Executive Board and head of the Automotive sector. Continental is demonstrating the integration of the dialog system into its Smart Cockpit high-performance computer (HPC) with a demonstration vehicle. Continental is thus serving a comprehensive market: market observers see a sales volume in the mid-double-digit billion euro range for vehicle high-performance computers alone over the next ten years.
The vehicle is becoming more intelligent
Smart Cockpit High Performance Computing: Balancing system performance and user experience.
With this solution, Continental offers another building block in the road-to-cloud ecosystem and extends the instrumentation, entertainment and driver assistance functions pre-integrated in its Smart Cockpit HPC. In this way, the company reduces development effort, complexity and costs for automakers. The Smart Cockpit HPC aims to balance user experience and system performance while meeting customer requirements for typical cockpit designs with driver and central display. The pre-integrated functions allow costs to be minimized. The bottom line is a fast time to market – from order entry to production readiness in 18 months.
Continental was the first supplier to pave the way for HPC-based vehicle architecture. Together with Volkswagen, Continental transferred the first central HPC for the entire vehicle networking of the ID. electric models to series production. By the end of 2024 alone, 30 vehicle models from different manufacturers will go into production with Continental high-performance computers.