- The partners aim to remedy distracted driving, a major factor in fatal motor crashes
- indie Semiconductor will leverage its global sales channels to deploy Seeing Machines’ Neural Processing Unit into its vision sensing system-on-chips
Autotech solutions innovator indie Semiconductor recently announced a strategic partnership with a leading computer vision technology company, Seeing Machines. The partners will co-develop advanced vision processors for driver and vehicle occupant monitoring.
The official note pointed out that indie plans to leverage its global sales channels underpinned by leading tier 1 and vehicle OEMs to deploy Seeing Machines’ hardware-optimized, industry-leading Occula® Neural Processing Unit (NPU) technology into the company’s first generation of innovative vision sensing system-on-chips (SoCs).
“In a mission to get everyone home safely, leading in the deployment of driver and occupant monitoring systems to address emerging safety standards and road safety legislation focused on reducing vehicle-related deaths and injuries becomes critical,” remarked Nick DiFiore, SVP & GM Automotive, Seeing Machines.
Distracted Driving
Citing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stats, indie said that distracted driving is a factor in about 10 per cent of fatal motor crashes and in the U.S. alone, driver distraction is responsible for the deaths of over 3,000 people a year and the injury of a further 400,000.
As a result, driver and occupant monitoring systems (DMS, OMS) are now being mandated or strongly recommended by global regulators and standards organizations through initiatives such as Europe’s General Safety Regulations (GSR), European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and is currently being reviewed by the U.S. NHTSA rulemaking for inclusion in updated U.S. NCAP guidelines.
Monitoring Solutions
It must be noted that camera-based monitoring solutions need to address many challenges, including dynamic lighting conditions and factors such as driver height, position, skin tones and facial obscuration, such as wearing sunglasses. The company claimed that its advanced vision SoCs will enable automotive manufacturers to address these requirements with solutions featuring high processing bandwidth, while also achieving ultra-low power, low latency and extremely compact form factors.
Senior VP of indie Semiconductor’s Vision Business Unit, Abhay Rai commented: “indie’s expansion of intelligent, vision-based sensing solutions is another critical step in our mission to save lives via our diverse ADAS and sensor fusion product portfolio.”
Rai believes that through this partnership, indie can implement robust in-cabin driver and occupant monitoring functionality at truly breakthrough performance levels while simplifying hardware and software stack requirements and, in turn, significantly reducing system complexity and total cost.
Delighted at being chosen by indie for optimized human detection and tracking, DiFiore further stated, “Together, we are creating next-generation solutions that significantly simplify OEM conformance to ADAS mandates including the safe implementation of L2+ autonomy while reducing the cost of technology for monitoring vehicle occupants.”
2000-born Seeing Machines is a global industry leader in vision-based monitoring technology that enables machines to see, understand and assist people. Australia-headquartered company’s technology portfolio of AI algorithms, embedded processing and optics aims to help products deliver reliable real-time understanding of vehicle operators.
Headquartered in Aliso Viejo, CA, indie is a part of the Autotech revolution aiming to power it with next-gen automotive semiconductors and software platforms. It focuses on edge sensors spanning multiple modalities, including LiDAR, radar, ultrasound and computer vision for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), user experience and electrification applications.
