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Far Looking Satellite Camera Family

Our first 8MP far-looking satellite cameras are going into production

Lenses on the road ahead

Continental camera technologies enabling ADAS around the world

At Continental, we’re preparing for yet another camera technology milestone. Our first 8MP far-looking satellite cameras for automated driving are coming to new vehicles from a premium European OEM soon. Over the last decades Continental has made mobility safer for millions of drivers and passengers on roads around the world. Our camera technology has and will continue to contribute to the future of mobility. Want to know how?

Our teams at Continental have been in the business of engineering and building automotive cameras for driver assistance system for over 20 years. These camera technologies have offered state-of-the-art performance through several generations, each iteration building on the foundations of the last. The team’s evolutionary approach to development has allowed us to continuously improve upon existing solutions, reducing manufacturing complexity while increasing performance. Constantly growing through previous generations, our teams have created uniquely reliable and robust cameras with a keen focus on cost.

There are more than price benefits to reducing the number of parts that make up a camera. First, having fewer parts in the sensor simply means fewer things can break. It’s the simplicity of our designs that make Continental cameras so reliable for automotive applications.

Second, reducing complexity also ensures a fully automated manufacturing process. When it comes to micron-level calibration and adjustments, an automated manufacturing line is simply better at reproducing the same sensor again and again. As Continental often supplies millions of cameras to a vehicle platform, automated manufacturing ensures the same high quality parts reach drivers around the world.

Our approach to creating Continental’s version of the best automotive cameras has been reinforced time and time again by our Partners and Customers worldwide. Our cameras can be found in tens of millions of vehicles already on the road.

Human Vision and Computer Vision
Our teams work in two product engineering streams geared towards supporting human drivers and computer vision-based automated driving. As a result, we enable countless driver comfort systems  with our range of camera products. For example, a 3D surround view of the vehicle to assist parking. Our algorithms can even make the vehicle transparent, homing in on high curbs and easing maneuvering in tight spaces. Commercial drivers love our transparent trailer technology  – a Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Innovation Award winner – which uses well-placed cameras to render the trailer almost invisible to the human driver.

From traffic sign recognition (TSR) and blind spot monitoring (BSM), all the way to traffic jam assists (TJA) and lane change assists (LCA), our computer vision enabled ADAS technologies  have been saving lives for decades. But there’s even more to come.   A premium European OEM is now launching a new vehicle model outfitted with Continental’s top-of-the-line 8 MP far-looking satellite camera and L2++ ADAS technologies. This proves that Continental’s cameras can support the most advanced driving functions.

Our teams don’t believe that cameras are all you need to achieve autonomy. However, we all know that camera performance can make or break a system. Such high-resolution long-range cameras are seen as vital to enabling higher levels of autonomy.

In cities they provide an unparalleled level of detail and information about the surroundings of the vehicle. Intelligent systems can then use this to improve the safety of vulnerable road users, such as cyclists and pedestrians. On highways, their high-resolution ensures more detail is available even for far-off vehicles, or in worse cases, obstacles. This means the automated driving system can react in time, improving not just passenger safety but also ride comfort.

Coupling these cameras with Continental’s radar sensors OEMs can design  even more advanced autonomous driving AD systems. Some configurations of our newest radar offer over  300 meters of range. This redundancy in long-range sensor modalities vastly increases vehicle safety, and eases the deployment of future L3 systems, especially for highway driving.

The Future of Automotive Cameras
Camera technologies will play a vital role in the future of ADAS an automated driving. Developments to support drivers in low light conditions or even take over driving tasks at night are one area where new camera technologies will play an important role. Higher resolution cameras coupled with AI-powered perception algorithms will play a central role in enabling higher levels of automation. Finally, solutions building on sensor fusion, like  Continental's radar-vision parking  will lead the way in increasing road safety through higher levels of automation.  

Autonomous Mobility
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Bringing  cutting-edge solutions  to market can be a challenge. Pilot projects, especially with the world’s leading OEMs are demanding by nature. Luckily, we’re blessed to have faithful experts in our Continental community.

Over the 20+ years or more, these experts have acted as development engineers creating new products, Customer experts, fine-tuning our solutions for real-world applications, as technology consultants, advising OEMs on cutting-edge deployments. Continental is more than a camera supplier. We support OEMs in achieving the best possible results for their active safety systems.

Our high-performance products paired with our outstanding team are an outstanding benefit for our Customers. Continental will continue to build on experience, engineering excellence, and a deep understanding of future technology trends to provide the most reliable automotive cameras.