Continental and Ambarella Partner to Develop Software-Hardware Self Driving Level 2 Plus

JAKARTA – German automotive company Continental and California-based artificial intelligence chip company Ambarella announced a partnership on Thursday, January 5 to create software and hardware systems for autonomous driving.

Both companies will focus on what it calls Level 2 plus autonomous driving, which briefly lets drivers take their hands off the wheel via features like assisted cruise control and lane centering.

Ambarella developed a new category of semiconductors called systems on a chip, or SoC, which combine multiple CPUs on a single logic board and provide artificial intelligence processing.

In a statement quoted by Reuters, the two companies jointly developed the technology, which will consist of a high-resolution camera and a lidar radar and sensor with the requisite software from Continental.

The German car supplier also holds a minority stake in another California-based company, lidar startup AEye, and has integrated a long-range lidar sensor based on AEye's patent to complement the auto supplier's existing short-range lidar technology.