Regulations on seat belts, cellphone use, car seats and everything else that goes on behind the wheel are aiming to make the roads safer for everyone.
Even cars themselves are trying to keep us safe, with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) being seen in more and more new models. These systems aim to reduce the number of avoidable collisions by making drivers more awareness of their surroundings. And they’re catching on—the Global Automotive Surround View Systems Market is growing steadily, with a projected CAGR of 33.24 percent from 2013-2018.
Surround-view is a type of ADAS that uses wide-angle cameras and advanced human-machine interface (HMI) to give a driver a 360-degree view of their vehicle. This is especially useful in parking lots (if you’re anything like me…), and other situations where manoeuvering and lack of visibility can be hazardous to your car.
General awareness of vehicle safety has increased significantly in recent years, which is one reason for growth in this market. However, fancy ADAS were always seen as the domain of the luxury vehicle, and well out of reach of your everyday driver.
And according to TechNavio analysts, this assumption is not far off. Surround-view and other ADAS systems were initially only adopted in high-end vehicle because of the high cost of purchase and installation.
However, one of the main trends being witnessed in the global automotive surround-view systems market is the development of ADAS for low cost vehicles.
“Suppliers such as Continental AG are working closely with OEMs right from the product concept through to the development of low-cost ADAS for the Medium-sized and Compact Cars segments. This is because these are the segments that will help to achieve economies of scale and reduce the price of ADAS during the remaining years of the forecast period,” say TechNavio analysts.
Naturally, making ADAS and HMI viable in a lower cost environment means the big guys in car manufacturing need to acquire the knowledge and technology required to make this possible, which means mergers.
A number of strategic mergers have taken place recently, most notably the acquisition of ASL Vision Ltd., one of the prominent automotive surround-view system developers in the world, by Continental AG in 2013. In the same year, Valeo SA and Fujitsu Ten Ltd. signed a technological partnership to jointly develop sensing technology for automobiles.
These mergers and acquisitions will help vendors continue to innovate and develop new products and concepts, including camera and radar based systems. Vendors in the market continually invest in R&D and compete among themselves to develop advanced and affordable systems with enhanced features and capabilities to ensure the maximum possible safety for drivers and to increase availability of various vehicle models with advanced systems in the market provides customers with innumerable options.
For more insights, view our Global Automotive Surround View Systems Market 2014-2018 report.
