KARIYA (Japan) ― DENSO Corporation, one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers, today announced it has released a retrofittable driver status monitor to help reduce the number of traffic accidents involving commercial vehicles, such as trucks and buses. The safety product checks for distractions, drowsiness, sleep, and inappropriate posture based on the driver’s facial image, which is captured through a camera installed in the cabin. If drowsy or distracted driving is detected, the monitor voices an alert. It is now sold by DENSO Sales and DENSO service stations across Japan and will be released outside the country later this year.
Large commercial vehicles can cause serious damage in an accident, and many trucks and buses do not have the latest safety devices installed because they’ve been in use for so many years. The driver status monitor is retrofittable to existing vehicles on the road, and can therefore accelerate the introduction of safety devices to large commercial vehicles.
A driver’s condition is detected by the product and recorded on a SD card. An operation manager and the driver can review the driving status, including the number of voiced alerts, and an image of the driver when the alert was triggered. This feature offers additional guidance for safe driving. The driver’s condition can also be notified to the operation manager in real-time, making it possible to caution the driver and take quick action in the event of an emergency. In addition, the monitor can be linked with a new telematics device for commercial vehicles released by DENSO this summer and a cloud-based digital tachograph manufactured by Fujitsu Limited.
DENSO has been developing safety technologies and products for passenger cars and commercial vehicles to help create a society free from traffic accidents. In 2014, DENSO developed its first driver status monitor and currently offers products for heavy trucks and large sightseeing buses. In 2017, DENSO collaborated with FotoNation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Xperi Corporation that creates facial image recognition and neural network technologies, to further improve the performance of driver status detection and accelerate the development of products that will impact the future of mobility.
These technologies and partnerships support DENSO’s commitment to deliver a safe and secure automotive society for all people around the world.
DENSO Corp., headquartered in Kariya, Aichi prefecture, Japan has more than 220 subsidiaries in 35 countries and regions (including Japan) and employs approximately 170,000 people worldwide. Consolidated global sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018, totaled US$48.1 billion. Last fiscal year, DENSO spent 8.8 percent of its global consolidated sales on research and development. DENSO common stock is traded on the Tokyo and Nagoya stock exchanges. For more information, go to www.denso.com, or visit our media website at www.denso.com/global/en/news/media-center/
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