Continental builds demo vehicle CUbE for driverless mobility

The technology company Continental is using its corporate expertise in automation, new mobility concepts, and electrification to develop solutions for the urban transport of the future and for a better quality of life in cities.

Continental has built a demo vehicle to enable driverless mobility, especially in cities. The vehicle, named CubE (Continental Urban Mobility Experience) will start its trials at Continental’s Frankfurt location, which contains a typical city infrastructure such as street signs, cross-traffic, pedestrian crossings and curbs, providing optimum conditions for a complex and therefore realistic route.

Many aspects of the technology used in the vehicle are based on the driver assistance systems and sensors that are already installed in today’s serial production vehicles, but new technologies are also used, such as the laser sensor. Based on this expertise, these systems will be further developed to control the vehicle completely autonomously.

“The trials will be used to identify all the essential technical requirements that enable safe, driverless passenger transport in urban areas,” Andree Hohm, Head of the Self-Driving Car Project at Continental, said. “This helps us to find answers to questions about our product strategy and to deliver leading technology for individual mobility in the future – including driverless systems.”

The future of individual mobility in cities is autonomous and electric, and it will become part of the shared economy,” says Frank Jourdan, Member of the Executive Board of Continental AG and Chairman of the Chassis & Safety Division Management Board. “This is why we’re developing cross-divisional solutions for driverless robo-taxis – and we will be starting with practical testing this year. Continental has therefore access to an almost complete product portfolio of its own sensors, actuators, control units and communication and networking technology.”