To head up their new intelligent transport project in Silicon Valley, Continental have snapped up Google self-driving car majordomo Seval Oz.
The move highlights the auto industry’s intense interest in building a presence in the global capital of the computing industry, close to companies such as Google. It also shows a shifting strategy by Continental, who historically have made most of their money selling commodity parts such as tires, sensors, and instrument clusters but now are putting increased emphasis on specialised software and related services.
Oz will have an immediate chance to use her business development skills at Continental, who plan to launch numerous autonomous-drive features over the coming decade. These rely as heavily on software as on sensors, which makes them appealing to Continental and other large Tier-1 suppliers.
