Two major automotive Tier-1s last week revealed their latest moves to advance assisted and autonomous driving. Continental has partnered with Ambarella to offer energy-efficient solutions for EVs. Magna and LG will collaborate on developing autonomous driving-infotainment technology.
Continental announced a strategic partnership with Ambarella on January 5 at CES. Ambarella is a US-based edge AI semiconductor company focusing on imaging solutions.
According to Continental, the pair will co-develop hardware and software solutions based on artificial intelligence (AI) for assisted and automated driving. The collaboration will combine Continental's expertise in automotive system solutions and Ambarella's computer vision know-how, System-on-Chip (SoC) and software modules.
Continental said they aim to get the products ready for global series production in 2026 in response to the growing demand for assisted and automated driving, paving the way for autonomous mobility.
The two companies will jointly develop camera-based perception solutions for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and scalable full-stack systems for vehicles with Level 2+ and higher autonomy, according to an announcement.
Continental said the full-stack solutions will include various sensors like cameras, radars, LiDARs and the associated control units and software. The solutions for EVs are energy-efficient, reducing power consumption and cooling demands. They would help lower the battery weight by several kilograms and result in an additional range of about five to 5 to 10 kilometers with the same battery capacity.
The strategic partnership between Continental and Ambarella follows an announcement in November 2022 that the automotive supplier will integrate Ambarella's SoC family into its ADAS solutions.
Magna and LG also have established a similar collaboration. The duo said on January 4 that they had signed an agreement to develop next-generation autonomous driving-infotainment solution proof of concept. They will explore the technical feasibility of integrating LG's infotainment capabilities with Magna's ADAS and automated driving technologies.
LG Vehicle component Solutions (VS) Company, a subsidiary of LG Electronics, and Magna introduced the concept at CES 2023 to car companies worldwide.
Eun Seok-hyun, president of LG VS Company, said LG and Magna will co-develop a proof of concept that could bring value beyond the former's cockpit domain. The project will demonstrate potential ADAS innovations that could help carmakers tackle some of the toughest challenges.
The collaboration is an expansion of the two companies' partnership. They established a joint venture, LG Magna e-Powertrain, in July 2021. The new company manufactures e-motor, inverters, on-board chargers and related e-drive systems.
