Continental Opens Research & Development Center in Silicon Valley

resource from: Continental Corporation   

Technology company Continental, which is the fourth largest OEM automotive supplier in the world, is expanding the worldwide network of its research and development centers. On Wednesday, April 12th (PDT), the company opened a new location in San Jose, California in Silicon Valley. Continental expects to employ about 300 experts from all parts of the company that will work on pioneering solutions for the sustainable mobility of the future. Their projects are concerned with autonomous driving, electromobility, connectivity, and mobility services.

"Our attention is focused on developing and shaping the environment of future mobility. At our new center in Silicon Valley, we connect our customer's wishes, contributions and orders with our innovative ideas, knowledge, energy and experience of over 32,000 of our engineers worldwide and our business partners, for the benefit of all," said Continental's Corporate Technology Officer, Kurt Lehmann.

Continental is investing millions of US dollars in the new research and development center. The state-of-the-art laboratories, workshops, and offices are housed in a sprawling, modern 6,000 square meter complex. Continental has already been represented in Silicon Valley for several years, as it's Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) business unit has been based there since 2014.

The goals of the research center are to develop pioneering technologies for transporting people and future mobility. Software-based solutions, including handling large amounts of data and using artificial intelligence play a vital role in this.

"The automotive industry is undergoing the biggest transformation in its 130-year history. In the past, it created value primarily using mechanical solutions. It then increased this value with help from sensors, electronics, software and digitalization. In the future, our business will be driven by mobility services and intelligent mobility technologies," explained Lehmann, who has been responsible for corporation-wide technology development at Continental.

Continental believes that most of the electrically powered, fully connected, automated vehicles in cities will be operated by mobility service providers and fleet managers. Continental is working on connecting vehicles "brains" that are capable of machine learning, which can improve the collective intelligence of the entire fleet. Continental hopes that the interdisciplinary collaboration taking is place at their R&D facility in San Jose, California, and it will result in new, additional business opportunities for Continental's pioneering technologies.

Continental employs more than 18,000 people in the United States. In the past five years the company has invested more than $1.9 billion there and is planning comparably large investments for the next five years.

resource from: Continental Corporation

Eric Walz

Originally hailing from New Jersey, Eric is a automotive & technology reporter covering the high-tech industry here in Silicon Valley. He has over 15 years of automotive experience and a bachelors degree in computer science. These skills, combined with technical writing and news reporting, allows him to fully understand and identify new and innovative technologies in the auto industry and beyond. He has worked at Uber on self-driving cars and as a technical writer, helping people to understand and work with technology.