Solutions for the Railway Industry
During the last years, the railway industry has become a platform for innovative people and goods transportation.
Automotive technology helps to make this development safe and sustainable.
The transfer to innovative railway logistics and people transport automatically creates a demand for high quality and proven technologies to increase the safety level and increase the performance of processes in all areas of the railway industry. These topics can no longer be reduced to pure rail traffic; it is also necessary to make the infrastructure future proof. One example of this transformation is the integration of the streetcar into a holistic mobility approach that is fully integrated into an urban transportation concept. For many urban centers, expanding this area can be the key to solving various economic and mobility problems. Increasingly, the streetcar has to integrate itself into the flow of traffic. This integration inevitably leads to an increase in the risk of incidents involving people, cyclists, vehicles, or other vulnerable road users. Here, the use of proven automotive technology is the key to solving the problem. Your risk can be significantly reduced by using radar and camera-based environment monitoring and an integrated emergency brake assistant. Furthermore, camera-based driver monitoring can enforce driver attention by alarming or disabling systems if the driver is distracted. In this way, the driver will maintain situational awareness, and critical events will not go unnoticed.
Because of higher speeds and frequently uneventful routes, long-distance and regional train operators are interested in safety topics like driver monitoring, collision avoidance, and clear intersection detection.
Technologies like smart glass that provide application dependent shading or head-up displays can be used on all vehicles to make the train driver’s workplace more ergonomic, safer, and more productive.
Functions
Products
Our Head-Up Displays (HUD) project the essential information directly into the pilot field of vision without restricting it. The pilot´s concentration remains on the road ahead, this not only contributes to higher safety, it also reduces eye fatigue by decreasing the demand of switching focus between the road and instruments.
Benefits
- Relevant information is moved to the pilot´s field of vision
- Pilot fatigue is reduced by removing the need to switch focus
- Safety is increased because the pilot’s eyes remain on the road
Our interior camera is able to detect and monitor both occupants and objects for increased safety and comfort. To give just two examples, the system can evaluate and monitor the health status of occupants and detect objects that are being left behind.
More than one accident occurs per day in big cities with trams. Sensors can be used to detect obstacles in front of a tram and for warning the tram driver. There is a big market demand for Collision Warning-Systems. It is the first step for automated driving in trams and other Railway vehicles.
Benefits
- Protects humans
- Improves accident prevention
- Reduces downtime and costs
- Improves the attention of the tram driver
- Technology robust against bad weather conditions
The cameras provides a complete 360° view around the entire train to supports the pilot, for example, in complex maneuvering tasks. This technology can be used with 2,4 or 6 cameras to generate a additional view that fits exactly to the use case and increase the safety during the maneuvering or at the entrance of the train without the need of a additional person.
Benefits
- Simple obstacle and rail tracking
- Easy train maneuvering and entrance
- Avoid accidents with people or obstacles in the blind spots
- No need for additional safety personal
Stationary use of automotive technology for access control, object, and obstacle detection. Examples for this use can be level crossing. Our proven radar and camera technology with use case tailored algorithms increase the safety level during rail operations to detect each type of object or obstacle that could hinder the operation.
Benefits
- Proven automotive technology
- Weather independent sensor technology
- Detects and clusters objects and people
- Increase safety during rail operation
- Flexible application use case and area
Monitors the tires‘ pressure and alerts the driver, when the pressure is below a defined threshold. This prevents subsequent errors or long downtimes due to an unexpected, tire error and makes it possible to put the vehicle in a safe condition. The system consists of four wheel-unit sensors and one ECU to receive and process the data.
Benefits
- Reduces accidents caused by underinflated tires
- Makes it possible to detect tire errors early
- Avoids increased fuel consumption due to low tire pressure
Intelligent Glass Control uses special films, which are inserted into the glass that change their transparency through electric control signals. This allows all car windows to be darkened with the touch of a button. This works in a very selective and incremental way. You can trigger individual windows and you can also determine the degree of darkening, so to say you can dim your windows. This not only offers increased comfort for passengers, but also makes driving safer.
Benefits
- Less weight compare to mechanical solutions
- Flexibility in the configuration of use cases
- Automatic in-cabin brightness adaption
- Display suitable information
Respecting the privacy interests of individual drivers, our Driver Monitoring System recognizes if the driver is distracted or tired and alerts him. Additionally, this information is a valuable input to other collision avoidance mechanism that can adapt their sensitivity accordingly and thus increase the safety.
Inspired by the principle of string instruments, Continental is reinventing the audio system by replacing conventional speakers with actuators that create sound by vibrating certain surfaces in the vehicle. It can be used in any vehicle e.g., trains.
Benefits
- Reduced costs
- Less volume
- Less weight
- Improved speech intelligibility
- Improved intelligibility in whole cabin
- Safe against vandalism
- Less amount of components
- Reduction of weight & volume
- More immersive sound
- New audio experience
- Design possibilities - invisible
- Exchange on NVH situation (acoustic problem and current counter measures)
- Acoustic analysis of contributing parts to radiation process (Laser scanning, microphone, accelerometer)
- Discuss approach for optimization:
- Damping of structure
- Add absorption
- Block sound transmission
- Combination of 1-3
Direct Contact
Tel: +49 69 678 696 410
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Relevant Links
Perception Development Kit (PDK)
For automated driving functions, 360° sensor coverage and central data fusion becomes inevitable. We offer a modular, off-the-shelf prototype solution for your development activities. A set of different hardware and software modules fit the kit for your individual application.
Intelligent Glass Control
Intelligent Glass (IGC) is a state-of-the-art solution with multiple applications. It allows flexible transparency and coloration settings for any glazed surface ensuring greater control over privacy and light penetration.
Industrial Radar Sensor Components
We provide the opportunity to implement radar sensors from the Continental Portfolio for industrial applications. For this purpose, products from the area of driver assistance systems are used and particularly adapted for the application in the industry.
Head-Up Displays
Our Head-Up Displays (HUD) project the essential information directly into the driver’s field of vision without restricting it.
Automotive Sensor Components
Our portfolio covers premium automotive radar- and vision-based sensors, designed to work in rugged environments around the world.
