Harman touts new in-vehicle cabin technologies

LAS VEGAS—Automotive technology company Harman sees new cabin features such as driver vital sign monitoring and audio experience upgrades as key marketing tactics automakers can use to attract buyers.

Part of Harman’s growing automotive product portfolio, the technology is intended to enable automotive brands to create in-vehicle experiences that meet the unique demands of specific customers.

Armin Prommersberger, senior vice president of product management at Harman Automotive, said: car news.

According to Prommersberger, this includes all digital aspects of the vehicle, including displays, user interfaces, features such as cabin climate control, and the vehicle’s overall connectivity.

Announced at last week’s CES Technology Show, One Harman’s innovation uses neuroscience, artificial intelligence and machine learning to extend the capabilities of the company’s Ready Care solutions centered around driver and passenger health.

The latest addition to Ready Care, launched last year, allows vehicles to reduce distracted driving and initiate personalized in-car responses to dangerous driving situations caused by physical dynamics such as stress, anxiety and drowsiness. can be mitigated. Harman’s radar-based technology, which uses customizable interventions such as audio settings to alert drivers, can also detect when a child or pet has been left in the vehicle.

Another innovation suite announced by Harman at CES includes acoustic and vibration sensors and external microphone products that enhance audio inside and outside the vehicle to keep drivers abreast of potentially dangerous situations. . Audio technology allows drivers to hear sounds such as emergency vehicle sirens, external voice commands from drivers and traffic controllers, glass breakage and vehicle crashes.

Another feature showcased at CES, Harman Ready Vision, provides intuitive directional guidance to the driver on the windshield to help increase driver awareness. Ready Vision also uses computer vision and machine learning to detect his 3D objects and provides the driver with collision warnings, blind spot warnings, lane departure, lane change assist and slow zone notifications. It’s more focused on being unobtrusive than other vehicles. warning system.

Harman also announced Ready on Demand, a new scalable platform. It offers an upgrade to Harman branded audio experiences such as Virtual Venues that recreate the acoustics of a live stadium environment. The platform is the foundation for expanding the in-vehicle experience, enabling future upgrades that consumers can unlock through in-app purchases throughout the life of the vehicle.

Harman also showcased a range of fully upgradeable hardware and software components. This allows automakers to perform upgrades over the life of the vehicle and reduce time-to-market just like their mobile devices. Called Ready Upgrade, the new hardware and software components feature his three families of production-grade cockpit domain controllers, the entire instrument cluster, and the in-vehicle infotainment software stack.

Harman has not yet revealed which automakers will adopt the new product. All of these features are now ready for production vehicles, according to Prommersberger.

As a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, which accounts for about 21.2% of the smartphone market, according to Statista, Harman can develop automotive applications at a speed that meets the demands of tech-savvy consumers, he said.

“OEMs spend a lot of time and effort writing specifications and requirements over and over again,” says Prommersberger. “We consult designers, not specifiers. We can spend more time not only getting the basics right, but also improving the quality of the experience.”