Continental CEO Elmar Degenhart: The IBM partnership could ‘create the foundation for a new generation of intelligent networked vehicles.’

German supplier Continental said it was teaming up with IBM, the world’s biggest technology services company, on systems used for driverless cars.

Continental CEO Elmar Degenhart said at the Frankfurt auto show on Tuesday that IBM has the requisite expertise to handle large data volumes needed to link cars to each other. He did not disclose financial details.

German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said last month that Continental was close to agreeing alliances with Google Inc. and IBM to develop autonomous driving systems for cars.

The partnership comes five weeks after Continental announced a cooperation with Cisco Systems Inc., the biggest maker of networking equipment, to develop technology to connect vehicles to the Internet. Web connectivity has become critical for carmakers as customers demand vehicles with more technology.

“IBM’s experience in cloud-enabled platforms and embedded systems development capabilities, combined with our systems expertise in automotive electronics, create the foundation for a new generation of intelligent networked vehicles,” Degenhart said at a press conference.

The technology will be designed to help cars communicate with each other, steer their way better through traffic and “literally look around the corner,” the companies said.

Daimler provides live traffic information and a Wi-Fi hotspot in its new-generation Mercedes-Benz S-class sedan. Backed by an array of 12 ultrasonic detectors, five cameras and six radar sensors, the 79,800 euro S class can match the speed of the car in front of it, even coming to a complete stop and steering to stay in the lane.

Google has been testing self-driving cars for several years, putting its own technology into existing car models.

“The boom is just starting,” Ralf Lenninger, a manager of Continental’s interior divison, said in an interview.