German multinational technology company Continental AG is expanding its research and development (R&D) network worldwide with the opening of its newest research centre in San José in Silicon Valley, California, US.
The new research facility will house up to 300 experts from all parts of the company who will work on pioneering solutions for the sustainable mobility of the future. Their projects are concerned with automated driving, electromobility, connectivity and mobility services.
“Our attention is focused on developing and shaping the environment of future mobility. At our new centre 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 centre. The state-of-the-art laboratories, workshops and offices are housed in a complex of around 6,000 sq m. Continental has already been represented in Silicon Valley for several years, as the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) business unit has been based there since 2014.
Lehmann noted that the new research and development centre forms an important building block in implementing Continental’s strategy. The aim of this strategy is to develop pioneering technologies for transporting people and their goods. Software-based solutions, 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 digitalisation. 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.
He went on to say that most of the electrically powered, fully connected and automated vehicles in cities will be operated by mobility service providers and fleet managers over the coming decades.
“Continental connects vehicles’ ‘brains’, thus expanding the collective intelligence of the fleet. This is the kind of interdisciplinary collaboration taking place across Continental in San José, and it will result in new, additional business areas for our pioneering solutions,” he added.