Continental's tech boss listed a range of reason why the supplier chose Berlin for its new lab for artificial intelligence. One of them was to be close to startups and partners.
"For example, Volkswagen's software group, Cariad, which is one of our customers, is in the same building," Continental Chief Technology Officer Gilles Mabire told Automotive News Europe.
Another key factor was being in an area with a lot of highly skilled people.
"Berlin has that," Mabire said.
Continental also wanted to be close to Germany's policymakers, who are based in country's capital.
"With AI, we will be looking at how to connect different verticals together," he said. "For instance, we are in discussions about how to organize last-mile delivery in a big city."
This includes optimizing the flow of vehicles as well as reducing the traffic flowing into the city.
"If we solve these problems in Berlin," Mabire said, "then we can replicate the success elsewhere."
Continental started is AI-focused operation in Berlin with roughly a half dozen people. With the opening of the lab that number has grown to more than 20.