Vision Zero Concept of accident-free driving

Vision Zero is the Swedish concept of accident-free driving which assumes as increase in traffic safety and decline in mortality in road accident.

The basic principle of the program is inadmissibility of the road accidents from the death. This principle is called still the principle of "zero tolerance", according to it it is impossible to treat death on the road as to the inevitable evil connected with automobilization.

2018

Continental tests buses by means of unmanned vehicles

On December 21, 2018 the Continental company started on the polygon in Yuvalda in Texas (USA) the test car for a broad spectrum of pavings. It is made for bigger informational content of results of tests of the buses Continental for passenger and light trucks and minimization of influence of the procedure of testing for results. The test car is created on the basis of an automated system of Continental Cruising Chauffeur developed for highways. This development makes the contribution to the embodiment of strategy of accident prevention of Continental Vision Zero. Read more here.

Continental urges to apply approach of Vision Zero to traffic of data

On July 2, 2018 it became known that the technology company Continental prohibited the employees to use applications like WhatsApp and Snapchat in corporate network. According to the company, shortcomings of these services are shown in data protection: applications get access to personal and potentially confidential information (contacts of the user) and, thus, to the information about the third parties which does not use the application. In a specific case it is impossible to prohibit applications access to the contact list. Therefore, responsibility for compliance with laws about data protection is conferred on users of these services. The company refuses to undertake the similar risks connected with data protection. In addition, Continental aims to protect the employees and business partners.

Security of technologies and trust of users to them, first of all, are important for us. We work on eradication of the road accidents and anyway we support approach of "Vision Zero" (ideology of zero death rate) and for traffic of data — the chairman of the board of Continental Dr. Dr. Elmar Degenhart said. — In our opinion, it is unacceptable to shift responsibility for compliance with laws about data protection to users. That is why we address other, safer services.

According to representatives of Continental, for quite some time now organizations on data protection and courts (in particular in Germany) began to express serious concern in whether there correspond applications on social networks to the General regulations of the EU on personal data protection (GDPR). The regulations became effective on May 25, 2018 and work on an equal basis with other laws on data protection. According to Continental, these applications often shift responsibility to the user. For compliance to requirements of GDPR the user (speaking about WhatsApp) should get permission of each person from the contact list for providing information on it to these services.

Continental considers such solution unjustified and, therefore, improper for use, in the investigation of what decided to prohibit application of WhatsApp and Snapchat with the purpose to protect the business interests, employees and business partners. At the same time the company is ready to withdraw ban if suppliers change basic settings and will take care of that their applications met the general standards of data protection, emphasized in Continental.

Continental works on in the future to exclude a possibility of the road accidents. The same approach of "Vision Zero" should be applied also at data transmission. When it comes about data processing, reliability, protection and moderation become the main principles of our business. For automatic and autonomous driving with network capabilities personal data not the main thing. For the majority of applications there are quite enough anonymous data — Degenkhart explained.

The principle "confidentiality by default" demands automatic use of the most strict settings without participation of the user. For example, the advanced system of assistance to the driver from Continental the front license plate number of the car does not interest, added to the companies.

Continental protects autocomponents and production from hackers

On May 31, 2018, within implementation of the concept of accident-free driving of Vision Zero, announced Continental concern equipment of the autoproducts cryptographic function of creation of security keys. All future solutions of the company will be issued already with this function.

As explained in the company, security keys are generated for each product separately that ensures due safety: even if one car is cracked, another still under protection.

Keys which serve for different transactions cannot be read from the outside, in the same way as the PIN code of your smartphone — Dennis Kutschke, the program manager of cyber security of Continental noted.

In development of solutions for cyber security the Continental concern makes use of experience and technologies of other industries. However the cyber security of the automobile systems needs to be provided not only after integration, but also in load time of the software and digital keys. For this reason at the enterprises the special concept of production security based on risk analysis for the purpose of identification of weak spots is implemented worldwide told in Continental. Car makers at the same time have an opportunity to transfer own keys in a system by means of safe network Continental.

Continental: the digital systems of cars should be not only functional, but also steady against the possible external attacks

Interaction of cars with each other, for example, on inter-chip digital links potentially opens doors for hackers. Thus, the digital systems should be not only functional, but also steady against the possible external attacks, are convinced of the company. According to representatives Continental, the company uses technologies of cyber security for protection against the possible hacker attacks — both components of cars, and manufacturing enterprises, important for security.

Our specialists work on increasing security and to protect our systems from the hacker attacks. The solution of this task depends also on ensuring production security at our enterprises, than we are also engaged. The first production lines are already equipped with the equipment for adding in products of solutions of cyber security — Felix Bietenbeck, the head of the Vehicle Dynamics direction of Continental concern reported. — A security concern mentions all components of vehicles therefore it is necessary to protect not only interfaces of communications systems, but also — and especially — components, significant for security, for example, such as the brake system.

As a response measure of Continental strengthens all directions, possible for the attack, implementing solutions in the field of cyber security at the set of levels:

• the first level represents protection of components of the separate electronic systems,
• the second — communications between systems in the car,
• the third — external interfaces,
• and at the fourth level data protection of external interaction from theft and manipulations is provided. Also this level includes cloud and server solutions.

At the same time, Continental implemented a response system on incidents — the additional security level providing instant reaction in case of the real attack. A system was developed using experts of the Israeli startup of Argus Cyber Security purchased by Continental concern at the end of 2017 and which was a part of its subsidiary company Elektrobit which specializes in the built-in and network software solutions. Together with Elektrobit specialists in the field of security prepared the complete solution for a wireless software update.

As the result, millions of cars will be able instantly to receive the current version of a security system without the need for visit of the service center. According to Continental, it is an important step on the way of strategy implementation of Vision Zero.

1997: Adoption of the Vision Zero program

The Vision Zero program was adopted by parliament of Sweden in October, 1997.