Continental is a German manufacturer of automotive parts and technologies. The company is in the works for developing a semi-autonomous car. After Google getting its first authorization of movement in Nevada, Continental runs its autonomous Volkswagen Passat prototype on the public roads of Nevada. The Continental prototype is pretty much closer to a production model and uses high-tech equipments unlike Google’s prototype that uses expensive radars and lasers.
Continental is using a stereoscopic camera in the car that will be seen in the upcoming Mercedes S-Class, for detecting movement of objects. The Volkswagen Passat Continental prototype has completed almost 25,000 kms of test runs and has met with the safety requirements for the State of Nevada public roads. Google and Continental have been following the same rules and regulations provided by the authorities, to have a red license plate along with a person sitting continuously on the driver’s seat of the semi-autonomous car.
Elmar Degenhart, Continental President is confident that semi-autonomous models can hit the showrooms by 2016 and fully-automated models, which can deal with higher speeds and more complex driving situations, can be seen in production by 2020 or 2025. Degenhart believes that automated driving will play an important role in the mobility of the future. The basic concept behind autonomous driving is hassle free mobility and passenger comfort. Car enthusiasts like us won’t be too pleased with this concept as driving a car is what excites us the most.
Source – CNet France
