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Continental ‘2017 Tech-Ride’ Media Technology Experience Event

Published : Tuesday, February 20, 2018, 11:15 am
ACROFAN=Yong-Man Kwon | yongman.kwon@acrofan.com | SNS
On November 6th, 2017, Continental held '2017 Tech-Ride' event to showcase the latest technologies for future mobility at BMW Driving Center in Jung-gu, Incheon, Korea. At this event, Continental introduced a variety of the latest technologies for improved stability and automated driving that will contribute to the realization of Vision Zero.

Future mobility is aimed at full automated driving. Continental develops and produces integrated active and passive driving technology and vehicle dynamics supporting products under the slogan of 'SensePlanAct', providing more secure and comfortable mobility. The 'Sense' area of the slogan includes a long-range radar sensor for forward looking applications, a short-range radar sensor to detect danger in the adjacent surroundings of the vehicle, a 5th generation high performance camera MFC with excellent night vision, and a high-resolution 3D flash lidar that implements vision.

In the "Plan" area, 'Assisted & Automated Driving Control Unit (ADCU)', a central control unit that analyzes and evaluates collected data and comprehensively generates the surrounding environment model was introduced. The "Act" area features advanced brake technology MK C1 for a high level of automated driving and electric drum brake with parking brake (EPB-Si). At the same time, the event also prepared an opportunity to experience how these technologies would be applied to actual experimental vehicles and how they would work in the actual vehicles.

 
▲ Lee Hyuk-jae, CEO of Continental Korea

Lee Hyuk-jae, CEO of Continental Korea, introduced about Continental that it is now a global tier-1 company in the automotive industry, with sales of 40.5 billion euros in 2016. It expects to grow by 3% this year. It has 427 workplaces in 56 countries and 220,000 employees. It consists of five business divisions: Chassis & Safety, Powertrain, Interior, Tire and ContiTech. In Korea, there are 2,470 employees in eight business sites in 2016 with 1,889 of them belonging to the Automotive Group.

Continental's entry into Korea began in 1986 with the launch of the Rubber Group in 1986 and the Automotive Group in 1987. It has been selected as the best place to work for 15 consecutive years since 2002, while Icheon and Sejong factories are reported to have achieved the highest performance in productivity within Continental. So far, Continental's domestic organization has been acknowledged for its superiority in production, but its future strategy is to concentrate on R&D. It suggested the direction to become the most efficient center in the R&D center.

Continental has identified three major directions for future technology development. Among these, "Automated Driving" aspect is an important technology for suggesting ways to increase safety through sensors before automated driving, providing stress-free mobility by reducing traffic congestion, providing spare time on the move, and creating new freedom of movement in the disabled and the aging society. The others include "Cruising Chauffeur" such as adaptive cruise control, and "Self Driving Car" for automatic parking and unattended operation. It is added that Continental has a lot of various individual technologies to implement them.

 
▲ In terms of electrification of vehicles, Continental has a wide range of capabilities in hybrid and electric vehicles.

In aspect of movement for electrification, so far, an internal combustion engine is the main, but in the future, drivetrain with electrification and battery, energy and heat management, drive systems such as brakes, steering, and pumps suitable for electrification, system for energy collection from tires and solar light, and system for communication with other vehicles will be combined. And in response to this journey of electrification, Continental stated that it launched a massive supply of mild hybrid solutions, 48V, in 2016, and it will be able to have a battery-based electric vehicles in 2020 and technology for automated driving-based 'people mover' in 2025.

In addition, Continental aims to maximize the efficiency of the engine in its electrification solutions and transmissions. In the future, Continental will provide solutions that range from current hybrid efficiency improvements to electric vehicles as well as high-voltage drive systems composed of motor and inverter systems for electric vehicles, DC/DC converters and power electronics.

In aspect of connectivity, more than 50 percent of the cars produced in 2017 will have connectivity, and by 2020, more than 250 million vehicles on the roads will be connected. Moreover, a new application through the Internet connection is expected to provide a safer and more efficient environment by transferring accident information and traffic situation recognized by individual vehicles to other vehicles. However, it is expected that there will be applications that cannot be imagined yet. At the moment, 5G will be able to provide a role for increasing reliability of communication.

Continental has also introduced that it provides connectivity parts including telematics and user interfaces such as dashboard and infotainment, and it has the capability to secure connectivity through recent acquisitions of security companies. In addition, the company continues to strengthen its capabilities in the software segment and it is partnering with a variety of vendors such as IBM and China Unicom in terms of back-end servers for acquiring and analyzing data from vehicles.

 
▲ Lee Sang-gil, Representative of Chassis & Safety Division in Continental Korea

Lee Sang-gil, Representative of Chassis & Safety Division in Continental Korea, introduced about Continental's Chassis & Safety Division that it covers Vehicle Dynamics (VED), Hydraulic Brake Systems (HBS), and Passive Safety Sensorics (PSS) and Advanced-Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) for airbags and vehicle speed sensing. In 2016, the division's sales are 9 billion euros, and the sale in the Asian market is becoming more significant since its proportion is 31%. Meanwhile, the Chassis & Safety Division has 43,000 employees, of which Asia accounts for 25%.

Continental's "Vision Zero" is a vision that aims to eliminate injuries and death caused by accidents, and the implementation is following the process of "Sense-Plan-Act", which is similar to human's recognition and behavior process. Among them, "Sense" area includes a long-range radar sensor for forward looking applications, a short-range radar sensor to detect danger in the nearby environment of the vehicle, a 5th generation high-performance camera MFC with excellent night vision and high resolution, and high-resolution 3D flash lidar that implements real-time 3D machine vision without any mechanical movement.

The "Plan" area includes 'Assisted & Automated Driving Control Unit (ADCU)', a central control unit that analyzes and evaluates various collected data and comprehensively generates the surrounding environment model. In the "Act" area, advanced brake technology MK C1 for a high level of automated driving and MK C1 HAD system architecture with two connected braking systems will provide elements needed for automated driving. In addition, electronic drum brake with parking brake (EPB-Si) provides more flexibility and options for vehicle manufacturers.

Automated driving is now attracting attention as a technology that can solve problems such as environmental pollution, boredom due to long driving and traffic congestion, waste of time, stress and accident, which are pointed out as a disadvantage in individual's mobility. By utilizing automated driving technology, it is possible to increase safety by decreasing serious danger situation, improve efficiency by reducing energy consumption and improving traffic flow, increase time utilization and convenience by using HMI solution. In addition, in future aging society, it is expected that mobility improvement for the population will ensure individual mobility for all.

 
▲ A wide range of solutions is provided for the vehicle 'sensing'.

 
▲ These are the major new products in the sensing section presented at this event.

In the sensing section, various cameras, radar sensors capable of accurately measuring relative speed and distance, and high-resolution flash lidar capable of 3D scanning based on the infra-red and constructing a model of surroundings are used. At this time, 5th generation Advanced Radar Sensor (ARS) is installed behind the radome on the front of the vehicle to perform forward looking functions such as adaptive cruise control and can provide EuroNCAP 2018, 2020 and later standards.

Moreover, the 5th generation high-performance camera platform, MFC500, is a front-view multi-function mono camera that can observe various angles closely and can support driver assistance functions and highly automated driving through lane departure prevention, frontal collision prevention, and signs and traffic lights detection. The standard specification was developed in response to EuroNCAP 2020, and the premium specification provides highly automated running and early recognition of the surroundings with a wide horizontal viewing angle of 100 degrees.

High Resolution 3D Flash Lidar consists of a laser and a highly integrated receiver chip that illuminate the surroundings of the vehicle with a distance of up to 200 meters. It also implements a comprehensive 3D model around the vehicle for automation operation, and provides reliable data even in bad conditions. Besides, V2X with M2XPro, which can identify the surrounding situation and communicate with the surroundings for automated driving, will create the basis for an automated driving environment by recognizing vehicle's position and movement at the same time.

 
▲ ADCU, at the center of automated driving implementation

 
▲ MK C1 HAD system combines MK C1 with MK100 HBE to create a redundant brake system.

 
▲ MK100 ESC High Plus Hybrid and Drum-Based Electric Parking Brake EPB-Si

The "Plan" area introduced 'Assisted & Automated Driving Control Unit (ADCU)', a central control unit that analyzes and evaluates various collected data and comprehensively generates the surrounding environment model. This enables a safe, versatile processing platform for applications in highly autonomous driving and plays an important role in interconnecting electric chassis and safety systems. Continental stated about the advantages of ADCU: scalability of its processing power and software modules, meeting safety requirements at maximum ASIL-D levels, possibility of integrating OEM black box software, and implementing the HAD environment model.

In 'Act' area, brake related systems were introduced. Among them, MK C1, introduced as the next-generation brake system, is an electric braking system that provides fast and accurate pressure rise by-wire, making it ideal for autonomous driving. MK C1 integrates the existing system's tandem master cylinder (TMC), brake booster and control system (ABS&ESC) into a single compact box package to lighten approximately 30% and increase the braking pressure within 150ms, which is twice as fast as the conventional one. Moreover, the design of electric brake can regenerate braking energy over a wider range than standard regenerative braking systems.

MK C1 HAD system architecture combines MK C1 system with an auxiliary brake system in the form of MK 100 HBE, enabling to stop vehicles even in the situation of a complete failure of the electronic main brake system. This can also provide an alternative for the user to stop a car when the main braking system fails in the implementation of the autonomous vehicle. Also, it is easily integrates into the existing MK C1 vehicle platforms, enabling the next step towards automated driving.

MK 100 ESC High Plus Hybrid is designed to combine the dynamic high pressure requirements of the automatic emergency braking function with the convenience requirements of the driver assistance function. This system, which makes use of both hydraulic brake and regenerative braking systems, can provide braking sense with reduced sense of difference in the hybrid system by appropriately applying the wheel braking and the deceleration by generator's regeneration of the power transfer unit according to the operation of the brake pedal. In addition, electric drum brake (EPB-Si) replaces the existing mechanical operations in drum brakes and provides key features of electric parking brakes to provide user convenience and interior design flexibility.

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