The future now: Continental reveals new indoor brake testing facility

Continental hopes to cut braking distances and prevent accidents on the road, after launching its advanced indoor tyre testing facility.

Like a scene from a cinema blockbuster the Volkswagen Golf careers through an industrial unit in Hannover without a driver at the wheel. It might look Hollywood but it’s actually the first car to be tested at Continental’s new purpose-built and fully-automated indoor testing facility in Germany.

The multi-million pound development, called the Automated Indoor Braking Analyser or AIBA, is the first of its kind to allow tyre testing irrespective of weather conditions. It represents Continental’s commitment to setting the standard for tyre research and development.

Cars can be ‘driven’ along a rig built inside a 300-metre long hall, at speeds of up to 75mph. Because it’s indoors the road surface can be soaking wet, bone dry or pretty much anything in between, regardless of the weather conditions outside. This allows uninterrupted testing 365 days of the year, and offers the capacity for over 100,000 individual brake test procedures a year.

Why is this significant? It’s important because it will allow Continental’s engineers to accelerate the development of new tyre technologies. And that means the tyres fitted to cars of the future should perform better under braking, reducing stopping distances and potentially preventing crashes.

The AIBA supplements Continental’s existing and comprehensive research and development processes and facilities, and will help the German tyre company ensure its tyres continue to set the standards others try to follow.

Related Articles

Card image cap

Continental receives “very positive” rating in survey

By Connor ORourke Continental Tyre has received a “very positive” rating in a survey conducted by TNS Infratest on behalf of German automobile club ADAC . In terms of both brand aware...

Posted 11 years ago

Card image cap

2014 Continental Irish Car of the Year shortlist

By Padraic Deane An original field of 51 candidates for the Continental Irish Car of the Year 2014 awards has been reduced to 16, the Irish Motoring Writers Association (IMWA) has announced. A...

Posted 11 years ago

Card image cap

ContiTech redesigns timing belt sticker

No smearing, clear instructions and excellent adhesion – the ContiTech Power Transmission Group has redesigned the sticker on which workshops record when a timing belt was changed. The sticker ad...

Posted 11 years ago


Tags

Road Safety, Continental