How can an increasingly electrified chassis lead to a safer vehicle? Continental explains.
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Automotive IQ editor Will Hornick recently spoke on the topic of chassis & safety architecture with Alfred Eckert, Head of Advanced Engineering at Chassis & Safety, and Thomas Gallner, Overall Vehicle E/E Architecture of Continental Teves AG & Co. oHG.
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"Today’s vehicles are not unsafe. They are really safe. If you look at the rate of fatalities within the last decade in the EU, it has come down 51% or so and we have a new goal for further reducing that figure." --Alfred Eckert |
"What we think could be a realistic scenario is that by 2025 around 20 percent of cars will be equipped with additional 48 volts." --Thomas Gallner |
Let’s have an introduction. What are your backgrounds and how did you come to work for Continental?
Alfred Eckert: I’m responsible for advanced engineering within the Chassis and Safety division of Continental AG. We are involved in pre-development and research, but mostly we are involved in interacting systems within the vehicle for chassis and safety. On Easter Monday of this week, I will have been with this company, formerly known as Alfred Teves GmbH, for 25 years.
Congratulations. That’s certainly a milestone.
Thomas Gallner: I’m responsible for a small department inside the central pre-development. Unlike Alfred, who’s working on chassis specifically, we deal with issues affecting the whole vehicle. So, while he’s dealing with e.g. the braking system, we take care of issues at the vehicle level. For example, last year, we organized the 2nd IP & Ethernet Automotive Tech Day here at Continental/ Regensburg. For the last Frankfurt Motor Show (2011) we equipped a complete electric car with all of our components together with the other divisions, including Alfred Eckert’s team, but we take more of a system view. We’ve also been involved in issues concerning highly automated driving.
Another task I’m also responsible for at Continental is E/E-architecture on vehicle level. I haven’t been here for 25 years yet, I still have a couple of years to go.
Could you explain what chassis and safety architecture means to each of you in regards specifically to your jobs?
T.G.: If you look at it from the complete vehicle, there’s not only chassis and safety, but there’s also the powertrain and the interior. If you look at some of the big developments, which have taken place in the last few years, one is...
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