Autoliv, a Fortune 500 Company headquartered in Stockholm Sweden, is not only at the cutting edge of automotive night vision technology, but a leading manufacturer of air bags, steering wheels, seat belt restraints, vision/radar systems and other life-saving technologies.  The worldwide company includes 80 facilities, including eight full-scale test sights, in 29 countries supporting automobile transportation. Europe accounts for 53 percent of Autoliv sales while 23 percent is attributed to the United States.

Autoliv’s night vision system was first introduced in the United States as an option in the 2005, top-line BMW 7-Series where the take rate was 17 percent. The system needs absolutely no visible light to operate. Instead, thermo technology senses small amounts of heat differentials. In 2009, the second-generation of Night Vision, which sees 50 percent farther down the road with enhanced image quality, became available in the United States.

Klapper set up a in-house demonstration for the 25 or so media members in attendance. As an Autoliv thermo camera focused on the doorway, members filed into a meeting room. Monitors played back the real-time images. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.

The first commercial Night Vision system was introduced in the 2000 Cadillac Deville, developed in large part by Raytheon Systems, a defense contractor with involvement in aerospace and naval radars.

Autoliv’s next-generation of night vision technology helps  detect pedestrians in the dead of night; especially useful in rural areas where adequate lighting is a luxury. The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates 4,784 U.S. pedestrians were killed in traffic incidents in 2006 with 69 percent of those occurring at night. In contrast China, a country where automobile affordability is now in reach of the middle class and driver’s education and rules of the road are virtually non existent, 19,000 deaths occured during the same time frame.

“You go to an accident site where somebody has hit a pedestrian and interview the driver and they say, ‘I just didn’t see them.’ It’s not that people are driving and intending to hit pedestrians, they just don’t see them, “ Klapper stated.

Thermo technology images, where people in the detection path resemble white ghost-like silhouettes, are projected to select locations of the instrument panel. In the first generation  2005 BMW 7-Series,  images were feed into the navigation screen on the dashboard’s center console. In 2009, a second projection with icons was added to the heads-up display projected onto the front windshield, more in view with the driver’s sight line. The 2010 Audi A8 projects the images into a screen found in the instrument panel itself.

A small camera mounted in the front grille captures the movements. In BMW models, it’s positioned inside the left-port kidney grille. In up level Audis, the candid camera is found behind the ringed logo.

Autoliv continues tweaking two different degrees of infrared technologies. ‘Far’ infrared detects pedestrians up to 300 yards down the road while ‘near’ infrared, providing a clearer picture, sees 100 yards down. Far infrared technology detects stray animals such as deer or moose with more precision than near infrared, although with less clarity.  In the United States, 1,500,000 deer-vehicle collisions occur annually. Klapper estimates more clear and advanced animal detection systems will get integrated into the thermo technology in two years.

Manufacturers currently offering Night Vision 2 technology charge approximately $2,000 for the option. In addition to BMW 7 and 5 Series sedans and Audi A8, the Rolls Royce Ghost also offers the technology. Down the road, Klapper visions this technology optional in more main stream vehicles.