Automotive News - Traverse City - August 8, 2019 - 11

THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2019

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS CAR MBS DAILY

Technology is taking Gentex beyond mirrors

EELAND, Mich. - Gentex
Corp., the Zeeland manufacturer of high-tech rearview mirrors and cameras,
is at the forefront of the push to develop technology for connected and
self-driving vehicles.
Gentex owns the HomeLink business that enables vehicles to control
lights, garage doors and other systems in homes.
CEO Steve Downing, who started
with the company in 2002 and replaced founder Fred Bauer in 2017
after earning five promotions in just
seven years, spoke with Staff Reporter Richard Truett at the supplier's
headquarters here. Here are edited
excerpts.
Q: How will vehicles of the future change the way Gentex engineers and manufactures glass
and mirrors?
A: The entire industry is focused on
how to make the car drive itself. But
not many people are thinking about
what happens once that occurs. We
are a sensor company more than
anything. How we detect changes in
lighting and determine dimming
curves is all about the sensors that
we have created software around.
A little known part of our company
is that we have a $20 million to $30
million book of business that is
about smoke and fire detection in
buildings.
Where these worlds start to come
together is the ability to understand
what's going on in the cabin of a vehicle. Its use is going to change drastically between a one-owner vehicle
and the fifth user of the day of that
vehicle.
How do we leverage our sensing
capability and combine that with
what we do in the home and office
space in a vehicle application? There
is going to be a tremendous need for
different types of information.
Gentex dominates the market for
mirrors. But it also makes cameras, such as those used in the
company's Full Display Mirror.
Should we think of Gentex as
more of a technology company?
Our materials background is imperative to understanding who we
are. We struggle to categorize ourselves because we are an electronics
company, because we have to do the
software in order to do the finished
goods.
But we're more of a materials science company than anything else.
The changes that are happening in
the industry are more conducive to a
materials company than anything
we've seen.
What are some future technologies Gentex engineers and materials scientists are working on?
We have concepts involving our
camera systems and driver identification and biometrics, how you personalize an application, secure that
data and the vehicle, and how you
control payment at tolls. We would
argue that some of these things are
farther out than many people think.
But that's our opportunity to engineer solutions for when the need is
finally ready, to make sure we are
there with the products.
Gentex is working on a technol-

We have engaged with
ogy that could put an
companies working on
entire industry out of
robocars. Their philosobusiness: window tintphy is to think about this
ing. Tell us about it.
more like an aerospace
It's the ability to dim glass
model. Don't worry about
in any format - roofs, side
the cost of the hardware -
windows, you name it. It's
it's all about uptime.
the ability to control the
If you are operating a
complete lighting of the
fleet of robotaxis, and if the
cockpit of a vehicle. I think
car costs $150,000 instead
that once self-driving cars
of $50,000, the cost is not
arrive, you are going to want
STEVE
that important, because
to control the atmosphere
for privacy or comfort. For
DOWNING the car is going to get used
all the time. How do you
electric cars, the more you
can cut down on sun-loading, the use technologies to drive that upmore uptime you have.
time even higher?

&
QA

What does Gentex have in the
pipeline on the electronics front?
Our sensing capability is beyond
just cameras. A lot of it is active sensors and fire protection. Some of it is
light and light emitting.
We've made some investment
rounds of financing in technologies
that we believe, longer term, are going to have long-term potential in
detecting certain chemicals in the
automotive environment.
There will be huge sensor needs
in a robovehicle that will have 90
percent uptime. Who's actually
watching it to ensure the vehicle is
clean?

How has Gentex kept such a
dominant position as a supplier?
Paranoia is the key! We spend 6.5
percent to 7 percent of sales every
year on r&d. We do it because unless
you are innovating, you will die.
Someone will catch you eventually.
On the Full Display Mirror, we
hadn't even started production of
Gen 1 yet when we were already engineering Gen 2. When Gen 2 was in
launch, we were already starting to
look at what was beyond that.
We have to destroy our own products, and our goal is to obsolete
ourselves before someone else
does. m

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Automotive News - Traverse City - August 8, 2019

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