Continental partners with AI chip firm Ambarella on autonomous driving

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s Continental and California-based artificial intelligence chip firm Ambarella announced a partnership on Thursday to make software and hardware systems for autonomous driving.

The two companies will focus on so-called Level 2 plus autonomous driving, which briefly allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel through features like assisted cruise control and lane centering.

Ambarella develops a new category of semiconductors called system on a chip, or SoC, which combine multiple CPUs on one logic board and provide artificial intelligence processing.

The two firms jointly develop the technology, which will comprise of high-resolution cameras and radar and lidar senses with the necessary software from Continental and Ambarella, the statement said.

The German auto supplier also holds a minority stake in another California-based firm, lidar startup AEye, and has integrated a long-range lidar sensor based on AEye’s patents to complement the auto supplier’s existing short-range lidar technology.

(This story has been officially corrected to say the software will come from both Continental and Ambarella, in paragraph 4)

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Josie Kao)