Continental wants you to see the ground under you while you drive

By dpa | 16 January 2020


LAS VEGAS: Automotive supplier Continental has been asking an interesting question: What if you could see through your car's bonnet and engine to the road beneath?

Using footage from several cameras, combined and sent to a screen on the dashboard, Continental wants drivers to be able to see more of the road ahead of (and beneath) them.

To give you a better sense of what you're looking at, the screen shows you the outlines of the car's wheels and body, as the manufacturer explained while displaying the new technology at the recently concluded CES tech fair in Las Vegas.

More than a cool-looking gimmick, the feature is designed to give drivers a better feel of the road in rough terrains and help them steer clear of potholes, Continental says.

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In another high-tech feature on show at the recent tech fair, the company said it had developed sensors to detect feint vibrations on the bodywork.

This would help a car to recognise that it has started to rain or that the car has been scratched and immediately alert the driver.

And if you never liked the look of loudspeakers in your car, the parts supplier has also found a way to get rid of them for you.

With the help of hi-fi specialist Sennheiser, Continental has developed an audio system that works entirely without traditional loudspeakers.

Instead, the sounds are said to be generated by various surfaces in the car's interior. Continental says that one particular advantage of this is that the driver will have a stronger spacial sense of sounds from the outside world - such as that of a vehicle coming from the side.

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