Continental, a leading German car manufacturing company, reportedly hired Seval Oz as part of the company's plan to bring the "Internet of Things" to cars.
Seval Oz is an expert who has worked with Google's self-driving car project as head of global strategic partnerships since 2011. Continental chose her to lead the new Intelligent Transportation Systems division in the Bay Area.
"This step is an excellent example of our strategy to make the car an integral part of the 'Internet of Everything,'" said Elmar Degenhart, chief executive officer of Continental, in a statement. "Our key objectives include eliminating road accidents, minimizing energy consumption, maximizing comfort and usability of vehicles, and enabling them to exchange information with each other in real-time."
Last year, Reuters reported that Continental was close to forming alliances with Google and IBM in developing a self-driving system for cars, although it was already working with Cisco Systems on such technology. None of the companies involved confirmed the report.
Continental announced on Monday that it was opening a division that will merge computing with cars. CNET reported that the company predicted that self-driving cars will dominate the roads by 2020 and plans to supply electronics for automakers that are working on this technology.
"Intelligent transportation systems open up many new business opportunities for Continental," said Helmut Matschi, president of Continental's Interior Division, in a statement. "That's why we have chosen Silicon Valley as our new location. In addition to our existing competence, the Bay Area has the technology and talent for developing connected cars and [intelligent transportation systems] that we need to build solutions for more than just prototypes."
Car experts predicted that self-driving cars will overtake manual cars in numbers by 2050. Google announced last May that it planned to unveil 100 self-driving car prototypes for road testing in California in the near future. Volvo has begun testing its own version in the Swedish public roads and plans to introduce the vehicle in 2017. Audi, on the other hand, did a test drive of its self-driving car in Florida last month and plans to make it market-ready in five years. Other carmakers reportedly joining the self-driving car bandwagon are Toyota, Tesla, Nissan, GM, Mercedes-Benz, Daimler and Ford.
