STMicroelectronics and Mobileye Deliver Second-generation SoC for Driver Assistance Systems
(Business News & Technology News, 9 May 2008)
STMicroelectronics and Mobileye N.V. have successfully sampled the second generation of their system-on-chip EyeQ2 for the vision-based driver assistance segment of the automotive market. The first generation of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, implemented on EyeQ1, are already in production at several car makers and offer functionality such as lane-departure warning (LDW), adaptive headlight control, traffic-sign recognition, collision avoidance through radar/camera fusion and forward collision warning that can drastically reduce the number of accidents. The LDW alerts drivers when they cross lane markings ¨C a common factor in many head-on collisions and other serious accidents.
The new generation ADAS being sampled takes this active safety concept to a new level. By increasing the processing power six fold, the EyeQ2 introduces added functionality, such as pedestrian detection and well as the previously mentioned LDW, adaptive headlight control, traffic-sign recognition, collision avoidance and forward collision warning on one vision processor. The EyeQ2 takes input from two high-resolution image sensors and has video-output capabilities that include graphic overlay.
"By using an audible warning upon an unintentional deviation from the driving lane, these lane-departure warning systems create an intelligent rumble strip imitation that alerts the driver even when there are no physical strips on the shoulder of the road," explains Amnon Shashua, Ph.D., Chairman of Mobileye N.V. and the Sachs professor of computer science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.
"The detection capabilities of the EyeQ2, even in difficult environmental conditions, allow for both notification and for crash mitigation, increasing safety for road users dramatically," says Marco Monti, Vice President of STMicroelectronics' Automotive Product Group. "By combining ST's automotive design and manufacturing expertise with Mobileye's strength in video-based driver-assist systems we provide an optimal solution for innovative, automotive-market proven, and cost-competitive solutions for the automotive market."