New Automatic High Beams Illuminate Age-Old Safety Concern

ZEELAND, Mich., Aug. 23, 2005 -- Admit it, you've done it too. At one time or another, you've accidentally left your high beams "on," only to blind another driver and find yourself "flashed" as you pass the oncoming vehicle. The experience is enough to make you hesitant to use your high beams the next time you drive at night.

But a new, intelligent high-beam control system recently introduced on several new Chrysler and Jeep vehicles is about to change all that. Known as SmartBeam(TM), the system uses a microprocessor and tiny camera-on-a-chip to automatically turn your high beams on and off according to surrounding traffic conditions.

"High beams are one of the must underutilized safety features on vehicles today," said Garth Deur, executive vice president of Gentex Corporation, the company that invented SmartBeam. "Whether it's out of fear of blinding other drivers, annoyance at constantly turning them on and off, or just plain forgetfulness, studies show that drivers use their high beams less than 25 percent of the times in which conditions justify their use. SmartBeam optimizes forward visibility by automating high-beam usage, essentially eliminating this age-old safety concern."

During nighttime driving, SmartBeam's camera acquires images directly ahead of the vehicle. If it's dark enough and no other vehicles are present, the system automatically turns on your high beams. When it detects other vehicles' headlamps or tail lamps, SmartBeam returns the headlamps to their low-beam state.

Gentex believes SmartBeam can go a long way toward making nighttime driving safer.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), approximately half of all traffic accident fatalities occur at night, despite substantially less traffic volume. In fact, the fatal crash rate for nighttime driving is three to four times higher than that for daytime driving. The deadliest hours are between midnight and 3 a.m. Pedestrians and cyclists are particularly vulnerable in the evening, with more than 65 percent of pedestrian fatalities occurring at night.

Over the years, there have been a number of advancements in vehicle low beams, including high-intensity discharge headlamps -- those super-bright headlamps with the bluish hue -- and headlights that swivel to illuminate the road when cornering. But low beams have inherent deficiencies.

"Low beams point downward onto the road, so even when traveling at legal driving speeds, by the time your headlights illuminate a potential road hazard, it will be too late to react," said Deur. "High beams allow you to identify potential road hazards at more than twice the distance as low beams."

The idea behind SmartBeam is not new. For decades, the auto industry sought to tackle the high-beam underutilization issue by attempting to automate high-beam usage. But early systems were short-lived, plagued by nuisance switching and generally poor performance.

SmartBeam, however, performs just as the driver would in various driving conditions. The system uses a complementary metal oxide semi-conductor (CMOS) camera -- a technology originally invented for space exploration -- that acts as the human eye. Switching decisions are made by a powerful microprocessor and complex algorithms, which mimic what the driver would do in various scenarios, only at a much faster rate. The entire system is housed in a Gentex automatic-dimming mirror that detects and eliminates rearview mirror glare.

SmartBeam is currently available on the Jeep Grand Cherokee, which was selected by 4-Wheel and Off-Road magazine as "4x4 of the Year" in 2005. In the fall, it will also be available on the 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, the all-new, three-row Jeep Commander, and the Chrysler 300. BMW recently announced that SmartBeam, which it calls High-Beam Assist, will be available on the BMW 5, 6 and 7 Series in Europe and other select regions later this year.

Founded in 1974, Gentex Corporation (The Nasdaq Stock Market: GNTX) is an international company that provides high-quality products to the worldwide automotive industry and North American fire protection market. Based in Zeeland, Michigan, the Company develops, manufactures and markets interior and exterior automatic-dimming automotive rearview mirrors that utilize proprietary electrochromic technology to dim in proportion to the amount of headlight glare from trailing vehicle headlamps. Many of the mirrors are sold with advanced electronic features, and more than 95 percent of the Company's revenues are derived from the sales of auto-dimming mirrors to nearly every major automaker in the world.