No more car accidents

No more car accidents

From 2025, the technology company Continental will equip several million vehicles from a major European automobile manufacturer with the eHorizon for Dynamic Road Events. While the connected eHorizon has been successfully deployed at a major OEM since 2022, this latest version of the eHorizon platform increases road safety for drivers by providing real-time insights into traffic events and potential hazards. In addition to static data such as road geometry and topology, this pioneering cloud-based solution also contains reliable dynamic information about road events. These include traffic jams, preceding accidents, construction sites, slippery road conditions, obstacles on the road and much more. The eHorizon platform enables vehicles to proactively anticipate changing road conditions and respond to them earlier than traditional sensor capabilities. An example of such a proactive response is the premature reduction of vehicle speed.

Real-time data can be crucial when it comes to preventing accidents. In critical situations, reaction time is often only a few seconds. "While our eHorizon has been in use for many years, we are proud to announce the integration of Dynamic Road Events into our platform and equip millions of vehicles with it. This is an important milestone on our path to our Vision Zero, i.e. zero traffic fatalities, zero injuries and zero accidents," says Volkmar Knaup, Head of the Connected Car Solutions business unit at Continental. The eHorizon allows vehicles to “see around corners” and anticipate certain threats earlier than traditional radar systems or cameras. Combining data from different sources complements the capabilities of traditional embedded radar systems and cameras. The platform not only increases safety, but also comfort and fuel efficiency. “Thanks to our in-depth knowledge of vehicle functions and our years of experience in connected services, we can ensure smooth integration with the automobile manufacturer’s driver assistance systems,” adds Xavier Suchocki, head of the Connected eHorizon product segment at Continental.

The eHorizon platform is continually being developed to further improve road safety and the driving experience. To this end, new data sources and suppliers are continuously integrated, different event types are added (e.g. railway crossings, encounters with wild animals) and the geographical reach is expanded to include additional regions. The extremely flexible architecture allows for quick adaptation to changes and new suppliers. The platform changes the interaction between vehicles, drivers and their surroundings, thereby increasing road safety. This lays the foundation for autonomous driving, even under challenging conditions.