The global demand for the transport of goods and of people is rising fast. Continental helps its customers making this transport as efficient, safe and environmentally compatible as possible, with components that provide ever greater intelligence to commercial vehicles. The company is doing this with products like the ContiPressureCheck tire pressure monitoring system, which contributes significantly both to reducing fuel consumption and to tire durability, or with the TruckYa! smartphone app, which shows clear information about free parking spaces at service areas. Continental’s dynamic eHorizon, which permits predictive driving and is one of the core components for automatic driving, provides a further highlight.
Intelligent transport solutions
Intelligent transport systems (ITS) network the data from infrastructure, vehicles and users. Continental is one of the most important suppliers in the market of core ITS components, and that includes the commercial vehicle sector. With the TruckYa! Smartphone app, Continental, operating under the VDO brand, has developed the ideal answer to the shortage of parking spaces at European rest areas.
The software turns the long-distance driver into part of a virtual community, using the information from all its users to model, amongst other things, the capacity at rest areas in real time. With VDO TIS-Web Continental offers a powerful tool to fleet managers. The professional data management system has a firm grip on fleets of any size, from position finding through to detailed analysis.
Continental is working continuously on new, sustainable products and solutions in order to secure the competitiveness and the social acceptance of transport and logistics companies. These approaches contribute to a reduction in the ecological footprint of the transport sector, while at the same time increasing the efficiency of vehicle fleets. After the construction of the tire, it is the tire pressure that has the greatest effect on rolling resistance and therefore on fuel consumption.
ContiPressureCheck is the tire pressure monitoring system from Continental for the spare parts market. The system supplies precise data on tire pressure and temperature, making a significant contribution to reducing fuel costs as well as to the durability of tires and to maintaining the value of the tire carcass. An efficient, clean drive also saves costs – systems and components are smaller, lighter, more efficient and less complex for this reason. Manufacture of the urea sensor, for the combined detection of urea concentration and fluid level, which was first presented at the last IAA, began in 2014 – an example of the sought-after reduction in complexity.
Another key to reduction in fuel consumption and to an increase in sustainability is found in the aerodynamics of commercial vehicles. Continental has, in the ProViu Mirror, developed a way to bring a notable improvement to the aerodynamic properties of vehicle fleets. Modern camera technology moves the mirror to screens inside the driver’s cab. The result is that the large external mirrors on commercial vehicles become unnecessary, significantly dropping the wind resistance without limiting visibility or safety.
One topic for the future to which ContiTech is already diverting attention is the recovery of waste heat from the exhaust. This involves using the exhaust heat to raise the temperature of an additional medium and using the gas created to support the engine in order to optimize fuel consumption. Hoses for this application are already under development at ContiTech.
Automatic driving
Continental is even now offering driver assistance systems for the commercial vehicle industry, and is continuing to develop them further. These are new milestones with which the company is marking the road to automatic driving. In commercial vehicles, this evolution in systems is going far beyond improved driving comfort and greater safety. It is increasing the transport efficiency of the vehicles, so securing the future viability of the transport sector.
Continental is also offering powerful, intelligent systems and software solutions for this purpose. The most important components are environmental sensors such as radar, lidar and camera. They are the foundation on which functions such as the emergency brake assistant and the lane departure warning system are based.
The European Union has specified these for all new trucks as from November 2015. The potential in the information from these sensors is almost without limit. The same applies to Continental’s dynamic eHorizon. With the help of the environmental data collected by the vehicle sensors, the back-end prepares a continuously updated map. This is harmonized in combination with the dynamic eHorizon, giving the vehicle the ability to “see round the corner”. The system is a hugely important step towards an entirely new, networked mobility.
Intelligent transport systems, sustainable products and systems, and automatic driving: With product highlights and innovations from these three technological fields, Continental is well set to meet the growing challenges in road traffic and is working on the future of mobility, the “Future in Motion”. This maxim is not just a promise made by the group. The international supplier to the automobile industry, tire maker and industrial partner is giving answers to future mobility needs under this motto at the IAA Nutzfahrzeuge (Commercial Vehicles) exhibition (Hall 17, Stand A06/B11).