Continental is participating in the German-U.S. software specialist Apex.AI as a strategic investor. In doing so, the technology company says it is underscoring the great importance of intelligent software applications for future generations of vehicles. 

Continental and Apex.AI have already been cooperating since 2020 on the industrialization of an innovative operating system for vehicles. With the minority stake now completed, the two companies are intensifying their collaboration in order to rapidly provide a near-series solution. The investment amount is not being disclosed.

Apex.AI has developed the meta-operating system Apex.OS from a widely used programming framework, the open source code ROS (Robot Operating System). Apex.OS is the first system of its kind for automotive applications that seamlessly supports all phases of software development and use without time-consuming customization, from the concept phase to pre-development to production use. The system has already been certified by the German testing organization TÜV Nord for its high, international safety standards in the automotive industry. This means that the software system is approved for series use on the road.

Apex.OS is a robust, versatile, basic software platform that can be used to implement further software solutions quickly, easily and in a developer-friendly manner, especially for new advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving functions.

“With Apex.AI, we have a strong cooperation partner at our side to meet the major challenges of autonomous driving with innovative software solutions,” said Frank Petznick, head of the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems business unit at Continental. “The complexity of vehicle software and electronics architectures is increasing rapidly, and the number of digital functionalities is rising. The automobile is indeed becoming more and more like a smartphone on wheels, where the development of hardware and software is increasingly independent of each other and significantly accelerated. With the help of the already certified meta operating system Apex.OS, we will significantly shorten the development cycles of new mobility functions, especially for automated and autonomous driving, in line with the highest safety standards. Our investment in Apex.AI is an important step into the future.”