Imagry, a developer of map-less autonomous driving software, has revealed that Continental will integrate some of its technology into the Continental Autonomous Driving (AD) platform for passenger vehicles.
One of the first features made possible by Continental’s platform is autonomous parking, which enables a vehicle to drive around a parking area, find a space and park in it, all without the driver using the steering wheel.
“Imagry’s technology approach is a great add-on to Continental’s software stack solutions for assisted and automated driving,” said Aniss Ouyeder, head of partnerships and innovation in Continental’s autonomous mobility business area. “We are impressed by the talented and highly motivated Imagry team, and we are looking forward to jointly realizing new automated parking features.”
Imagry’s software combines artificial intelligence technology that can capture and recognize a real-time video feed with a deep neural network to make instantaneous and complex driving decisions based on driving scenarios. As a result, the company’s vehicular solution is map-less, enabling vehicles to navigate geographic areas that have not yet been learned. To develop its AD software, Imagry has been operating vehicles fitted with the solution on public roads in the USA, Germany and Israel.
As the automotive sector transitions away from hardware-based design, the development of software-centric electronic devices continues to increase. Continental’s software platform will enable OEMs to provide a range of convenience features including autonomous valet parking within their vehicles. Over-the-air software updates will also be enabled.
The solution that Continental’s platform will use is Imagry’s autonomous driving motion planning technology, which consists of a deep neural network that learns by imitating human driving behaviors. It can extrapolate and generalize by drawing on previously learned behavior to navigate unlearned roadways completely autonomously while making human-like decisions.
During the initial launch of the valet parking feature, a driver must be present in the vehicle to monitor the surrounding environment and the car’s decisions.
“Autonomous parking is just the first step on the path to full autonomous driving,” commented Eran Ofir, Imagry’s CEO. “The capabilities of our map-less system extend easily to the open road, enabling the vehicle to operate freely in geographic areas that were previously unknown to it. We’re confident that Continental OEM customers will soon appreciate the full extent of our exciting offering.”
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