Cipia’s DMS enters SAIC’s internet car

Above: Cipia’s DMS software integrated into Roewe RX5 MAX car model running on TI TDA4VM SoC

Cipia, formerly Eyesight Technologies, announced that the Chinese automotive company SAIC Motor is to integrate its driver and interior monitoring system in the Roewe RX5 MAX car model. The purchase order was made through the systems supplier Tier 1 Technomous, Cipia’s partner in the Chinese automotive market.

The RX5 series was launched at 2016 as a joint venture of SAIC and the e-commerce giant AliBaba. Together, they branded the RX5 as “the first internet car in the world”. Cars in this series are equipped with AliBaba’s operating system and top data processing capabilities, designed to improve the performance of navigation, information, entertainment and maintenance applications. The MAX model, considered the premium model in the series, was launched at 2018.

According to research from Continental China and non-profit organization HCVC, 74% of people who survived road traffic accidents attributed the main cause to distracted driving. With the growing number of distractions in cars coupled with an overreliance on semi-autonomous driving features, there is a clear need for technology to mitigate the dangers of distracted driving.

The computer vision and AI technology powering Cipia’s Driver Sense, monitors and analyzes the driver’s behavior by detecting visual attributes such as eyelids, pupils, gaze direction, etc., and translating them to the physiological state of the driver (drowsiness, distraction, talking on the phone, etc.), enabling life-saving warnings and actions.

The Chinese automotive market has been in a steady growth state for the past two decades. In 2020, 25M vehicles were manufactured in China – more than the US and EU combined, and in recent years Chinese automakers started acquiring international auto brands and targeting western markets with international brands. SAIC Motor has been the top-selling automotive manufacturer in China for 15 consecutive years, reaching a sales volume of 5.6 million vehicles across its brands in 2020.

Chinese OEM has begun manufacturing cars with Cipia’s DMS

The israeli Cipia (formerly Eyesight) reported that the first model of a car equipped with the driver monitoring system it has developed will be hitting the roads in China during this month. The company is collaborating with a Chinese automaker, which has chosen to implement Eyesight’s solution in one of its new models, whose production began last month. Eyesight hopes that the initial adoption will lead to the implementation of the system in other models from the same manufacturer.

Cipia’s Driver Sense DMS utilizes AI and computer vision to monitor the driver for signs of distraction and drowsiness behind the wheel to help create a safer driving experience. The company monitors important factors including gaze vector, blink rate, and eye openness to monitor for dangerous situations and also includes the ability to monitor the driver accurately with a facemask present, proper seat belt usage detection as well as cigarette smoking detection.

Earlier this month, Cipia announced that a leading U.S-based automaker has doubled the volume of systems ordered from Cipia to $30 million, intended to be integrated into a new model scheduled to be launched in 2021. So far, Cipia has achieved 10 design wins.

The Chinese car market is the largest and fastest-growing car market in the world, and also the first to bounce back after the severe impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the world car industry. The Chinese market is also considered to be advanced in terms of adopting new technologies and advancing safety regulations. The issue of regulation is of crucial importance for the driver monitoring systems market. Already last year, some provinces in China began requiring the installation of driver monitoring systems in new vehicles. Indeed, according to Research & Markets, in 2019 over 10,000 DMS systems were sold in China, a spike of 174% compared to a year earlier, and in the first quarter of 2020 about 5,000 systems were installed, a rate that reflects an annual growth of more than 300%.