Continental Presents AutoLinQ - a Mashup of Car, Personalized Web and Social Media Content

DETROIT – June 2, 2009: Continental, one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers, today introduced AutoLinQ during the Telematics Detroit 2009 Conference. AutoLinQ is a next generation in-vehicle infotainment and connectivity solution that will enable drivers and passengers to personalize their car by safely downloading information and content from the web to the dash. Continental will work closely with its automotive customers and application developers to ensure that the information brought into the car is integrated in a balanced, thoughtful, secure and safety-minded way.

Opening The Door To The Future of Mobility Inside The Car
Continental plans to develop automotive hardware and a software solution, extending tools and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) into the automotive space for the third-party development community. The open architecture that Continental is developing is expected to be capable of leveraging the Android Market Place as well as other Internet ecosystems.

Continental plans to work hand-in-hand with its automotive customers to create a new business model that includes partnering with third party developers to write and certify applications for the car. The applications will provide drivers and passengers with vehicle adapted content and services that are relevant to the driving experience.

Continental initially plans to focus its efforts on developing a set of ‘core’ applications that will provide drivers with the power to take the Internet with them anytime, anywhere. Applications are being designed to provide drivers with contextually relevant information to make life easier and better. For instance, imagine if a car is smart enough to know how to find the friends within your personal network, visually display their location via an in-dash display and navigate you to them in the shortest amount of time using real-time traffic information. Continental plans to work with its partners to develop a host of compelling new in-vehicle experiences.

“As the global leader of in-vehicle connectivity and multimedia products, Continental has helped many of its customers’ integrate technology into the car to differentiate their vehicle brands and sell cars,” said Kieran O’Sullivan, Executive Vice President of Continental’s Infotainment & Connectivity Business Unit. “Continental’s AutoLinQ solution will further evolve this capability and enable OEMs to build brand loyalty by taking advantage of continuously evolving and updatable internet content.”

Continental’s AutoLinQ solution also will enable consumers to monitor and control certain vehicle functions from a mobile phone; check the vehicle status, change certain vehicle settings and customize individual driver preferences from a laptop or home PC.

“By 2016, the majority of consumers will consider in-vehicle connectivity and the ability of driver/passenger-centric, contextual information as important as traditional automobile features such as high safety and fuel efficiency standards”, says Thilo Koslowski Vice President and Automotive Practice Leader at Gartner, Inc.

According to Koslowski, “The continued rise of connected consumer devices, such as smartphones and mobile Internet devices (MIDs), will increase consumer expectations for always-on data availability throughout their work and home, and when being mobile - including when driving. The automotive industry must therefore develop seamless data and service-to-car integration solutions that leverage unique Human-Machine-Interface, connectivity and application portal innovations to provide a rich, flexible and unique user experience.”