Artificial intelligence center to be set up in Budapest

Continental Automotive Kft., a subsidiary of Germany’s Continental AG, will open an artificial intelligence (AI) competence center in Budapest in May 2018, with the Hungarian government providing a quarter of the HUF 5.5 billion (EUR 17.7 mn) investment cost.

The Deep Machine Learning Competence Center will be an integrated part of the global network of the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) business unit. According to a report by the Hungarian Investment Promotion Agency, the focus topic in the new site will be Deep Machine Learning for embedded and safety-critical real-time software applications for autonomous driving. With a hundred software and hardware experts, the new center will shape the future of self-driving technologies from Budapest.

Continental's business unit Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) is using Machine Learning and neural networks for many years. In complex driving scenarios, decisions need to be taken on the basis of not just one object or one sensor, and not just in environments that can be predicted very well. Deep Machine Learning based methods will enable vehicles to capture (sense) and interpret their surroundings (plan), and to react accordingly (act). With artificial intelligence (AI) systems, mastering complex driving tasks will no longer require a human driver to sense, plan and act.

Karl Haupt, head of Continental AG's Driver Assistance Systems business unit, said one of the most important trends in the automotive industry is the development of self-driving cars. It is the fastest growing area in this industry. Continental develops complete systems for cars that drive alone.

Thomas Brohm, head of Continental AG's Driver Assistance Systems business unit, said that in the field of artificial intelligence, the Budapest team will lead innovation within the company, while Hungarian technical traditions and the economic environment will successfully support the company's ideas.

Continental, which has 29 branches and 233,000 employees worldwide, has been present in Hungary for 27 years. All around the country, there are six factories and a tire sales center, and nearly 5,000 of the 8,000 employees work in the automotive industry.