Conti starts up own supercomputer for vehicle AI

Frankfurt am Main, Germany – Continental AG has put into operation its own supercomputer for artificial intelligence in a bid to develop new autonomous vehicle technologies more efficiently and quickly.

The German technology group has been operating a datacentre in Frankfurt since the beginning of the year, offering computing power as well as storage space to developers across all its worldwide locations, it said 28 July.

Conti has billed the supercomputer, powered by InfiniBand-connected DGX systems from US technology firm Nvidia, as “an investment in our future.”

The system, according to Christian Schumacher, head of programme management systems in Continental’s advanced driver assistance systems business unit, reduces the time to train neural networks and allows for at least 14 times more experiments to be run at the same time.”

The supercomputer is built with more than 50 Nvidia DGX systems, and is claimed by Conti to be the “top system in the automotive industry.” 

“The high-end computer will be used in particular for innovative software disciplines such as deep learning and AI-driven simulations,” Schumacher explained.

The German group can now develop the modern systems for assisted, automated and autonomous vehicles "in a much quicker, more effective and more cost-efficient way," he added.

Advanced driver assistance systems use AI to make decisions, assist the driver and ultimately operate autonomously. 

Continental said the investment in the powerful system is part of its future strategy to focus on software and digitalisation.

According to the German group, more than 20,000 of the more than 51,000 engineers working for Continental are experts in the areas of software and IT.