Advanced Cabin Sensing Solutions for Safer and More Comfortable Driving

Advanced Cabin Sensing Solutions

...for safer and more comfortable driving

Discover how cabin sensing technology is changing the future of mobility and improving safety on the road. Follow us on the next step towards smarter and safer driving.

At Continental Engineering Services, we offer advanced Cabin Sensing solutions that utilize a range of sensors, including camera and radar technologies, to capture and evaluate the driver, passengers, and other objects in the cabin. Our goal is to provide a holistic human-machine interaction solution that offers an exclusive user experience and maximizes safety.
One of our most innovative solutions is the Continental Interior Camera System, which enables the driver and the vehicle to interact and communicate with each other seamlessly. With a well-executed integration, the camera can be invisible to the driver while still providing a clear view of the driver’s actions and state.
 
Our primary focus is on safety-related functionalities, especially given recent legislative changes requiring vehicles to monitor drivers for attentiveness and drowsiness starting in 2024. We offer additional functions that are necessary to achieve a 4-5 star rating in the EuroNCAP evaluation scheme.
 
Privacy is also of utmost importance to us. Therefore, we ensure that sensor data is not stored and processed locally on our ECU, preventing any misuse.
Steps to automated driving and cabin sensing technology from Continental Engineering Services

Thinking forward

Our Cabin Sensing solutions are not only critical for the safety of the driver but also for autonomous driving. Our system complies with and supports autonomous driving UNECE Level 2+ and upwards. For autonomous driving, it is necessary to monitor the presence and attentiveness of the driver.
 
Our Driver Monitoring Camera is capable of achieving this for Level 2+ and beyond. It is also essential for the driver to be able to resume control within a guaranteed take-over time. With L4 and L5 automation, passenger and object monitoring become mandatory, allowing the vehicle to react in the most appropriate way in all situations.

Technologies and Detection Capabilities

Our technologies and detection capabilities include:

Driver Monitoring

  • Attentiveness and Drowsiness Detection
  • Facial Recognition
  • Emotion and Gesture Detection

Interior Radar

  • Seat Occupancy and
    Child Presence Detection
  • Body Movement Detection
  • Vital Signs Monitoring
    (Respiration and Heart Rate)

Cabin Monitoring

  • Hands on Wheel Detection
  • Seatbelt Engagement Detection
  • Seat Occupancy and
    Child Presence Detection
  • Object Detection

Thermal Camera

  • Thermal Comfort Measurement
  • Head-Tracking

Driver Monitoring System
- stand alone solution -

Our Driver Monitoring System reliably detects drowsiness and distraction of the driver. International legislation make this a mandatory safety feature starting 2024. Additionally our scalable solution also supports facial recognition, emotion detection and advanced controls.
 
The core of the system is our DMS software algorithm. It is designed to be run not only on our dedicated and powerful DMS electronics with CAN-FD interface, but may be integrated also in 3rd party Cockpit High Performance Computer (HPC). The 1MPix camera sensor with LED illumination is available as an encapsulated unit, but can be offered as solution integrated into a cluster instrument as well.

Interior Radar

Our radar technology allows the most precise child presence detection (CPD) and complies to upcoming requirements described in EuroNCAP 2024 and MOU 2025.
 
Besides the seat occupation in general and child presence detection specifically, the system also detects body movements and vital signs such as respiration and heart rate.
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Occupancy

Seat occupancy detection
Number of passengers
Age classification

Child Presence

Child presence detection
Age classification of the child
Used also for pet detection

Vital Signs

Heart rate (HR)
Respiration Rate (RR)
Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

Cabin Monitoring

Cabin monitoring extends the classical driver monitoring by covering not only the driver but also passengers and the complete cabin interior. It safely detects the presence of passengers and objects, can evaluate seat occupation and the use of seatbelts. For Level 4 and 5 autonomous driving, it is essential for the vehicle to know, not only the presence, but also the posture and status of its occupants. For example, the vehicle needs to know if the driver is attentive and has the hands on the steering wheel.
 
Additional Comfort related example use-cases are personalization based on driver identification or the support for video conference calls.

Pose Detection

Hands on Wheel Detection

Face Detection

Thermal Comfort

With our thermal camera we can accurately measure the absolute temperature of head, forehead and body. Based on this data the Thermal Comfort Value (TCV) of driver and passenger is calculated providing insight into the passenger’s satisfaction about the thermal environment on a numeric scale, which represent their sensation from very cold up to very hot. This information can be an valuable input to improve the climate control algorithm.

Contact us for a live demo!

Contact

Legal Regulations and NCAP

CES provides consulting and turn-key solutions for fulfilling legal regulations, homologation and NCAP requirements

HMI Systems & Functions

Modern HMI systems must offer user-friendly display of all relevant information, simple operating concepts and absolute safety during use – these are just three of the many aspects that our innovative but also proven systems offer.

Display Solutions

A Holistic Human-Machine Interface is to make the understanding of information and the reaction to it as easy and intuitive as possible.

DIRECT CONTACT

Daniel Jaedicke

Business Development – Interior Electronic Functions

Email: ces-interior@conti-engineering.com

Email: ces-interior@conti-engineering.com