Gentex to Highlight Driver Monitoring Tech at IAA Mobility

At the IAA Mobility show in Munich, Germany, Gentex Corporation plans to showcase its scalable driver monitoring system designed to help automakers meet impending safety regulations aimed at reducing traffic fatalities and injuries. The company will also demonstrate its expertise in thermal imaging with Israel-based technology partner, ADASKY.

European Union General Safety Regulations will soon require that cars sold in Europe be equipped with a driver monitoring system (DMS). Gentex’s mirror-integrated DMS tracks driver head pose, eye gaze and other metrics to determine distraction, drowsiness, sudden sickness and return of manual control in semi-autonomous vehicles. The system can expand to include 2D and structured-light-based 3D cabin monitoring for detecting passengers, behavior, objects, and more, the company said.

Gentex has ongoing DMS development programs with multiple OEMs, with much of the work taking place at Gentex Technologies Israel, a Gentex subsidiary in Tel-Aviv established to develop advanced sensor hardware and software solutions for the automotive industry, Gentex said.

Gentex’s IAA booth will also highlight its partnership with ADASKY. In May, the two companies announced a collaboration agreement to help bring ADASKY’s propriety thermal imaging technology to market. ADASKY’s proprietary LWIR (Long Wave Infrared) sensors are known for their size-to-performance ratio, solid state technology, reliability and “shutterless” constant-operation design. They’re intended to fill gaps in existing advanced sensing systems, allowing ADAS and vision-based systems to operate more reliably in low light and in all-weather situations, ultimately helping optimize key functions such as automatic emergency braking (AEB).

Gentex’s IAA Mobility exhibit will also showcase the company’s Full Display Mirror (FDM), an intelligent rear-vision system that uses a custom camera and mirror-integrated video display to optimize a vehicle’s rearward view. The system captures video from a rearward-facing camera and streams it to a mirror-integrated LCD that provides the driver with an unobstructed, panoramic view behind the vehicle. The FDM debuted seven years ago and is available on 94 different vehicles from automakers around the world, Gentex said.

The FDM also serves as a platform for additional innovation. Add-on features include a mirror-integrated digital video recorder (DVR), scalable trailer cam system, touch screen display, lane-line projection overlays and mirror-integrated selfie cam for capturing photos within the vehicle cabin.

When it comes to car connectivity, Gentex will showcase HomeLink, its car-to-home automation system, which consists of vehicle-integrated buttons that can be programmed to operate a myriad of home automation devices, the company said.

The company will also demonstrate how automakers can develop new revenue streams by offering their customers e-concierge and travel booking services via Simplenight, a Gentex partner and provider of an e-commerce platform that can be custom-branded and integrated into OEM mobile apps, center consoles and customer engagement web sites.

The IAA Mobility show runs Sept. 5-10 in Munich, Germany. Gentex technologies will be on display in Hall A2, Stand #B33.