The Cruising Chauffeur

Highly automated driving on highways is no longer just pie in the sky. Continental started testing systems like this on public roads back in 2012 in the U.S. state of Nevada. The technology company now has a global fleet of development vehicles in Germany, the U.S.A., Japan and China. The Cruising Chauffeur function gives vehicles the ability to take over the driving task on highways in accordance with the national traffic regulations. Part of the division of tasks between the driver and the vehicle is that the driver takes over driving again at the end of the stretch of the highway. This handover is initiated by a specially developed human machine interface that is also being tested in the vehicles. And even if the driver fails to respond when prompted to take over – for health reasons, for example – the vehicle is able to stop safely automatically. This is done using the so called minimum risk maneuver, in which the vehicle identifies where there is space to stop safely and automatically heads for this place. This function will be part of the Cruising Chauffeur when it is ready for production in 2020.