• Unique partnership addresses key challenges for driver and occupant monitoring and simplifies compliance with regulatory requirements and safety standards
• Combination of indie’s optimized sensing technology and Seeing Machines’ Occula® NPU delivers superior vision performance, ultra-low power, low latency and robust sensing
• Expands indie’s product portfolio to support best-in-class edge-based vision sensor solutions

indie Semiconductor (Nasdaq: INDI), an Autotech solutions innovator has announced a strategic partnership with Seeing Machines, a leading computer vision technology company, to complement development of advanced vision processors for driver and vehicle occupant monitoring.

Leveraging indie’s global sales channels underpinned by leading tier 1 and vehicle OEMs, this partnership enables indie to deploy Seeing Machines’ hardware-optimized, industry-leading Occula® Neural Processing Unit (NPU) technology into the Company’s first generation of innovative vision sensing system-on-chips (SoCs).

Based on data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), distracted driving is a factor in nearly 10 percent of fatal motor crashes and in the U.S. alone, driver distraction is responsible for the deaths of over 3,000 people a year and the injury of a further 400,000. To reduce the number of accidents related to driver distraction or drowsiness and occupant fatalities, driver and occupant monitoring systems (DMS, OMS) are now being mandated or strongly recommended by global regulators and standards organizations through initiatives such as Europe’s General Safety Regulations (GSR), European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and is currently being reviewed by the U.S. NHTSA rulemaking for inclusion in updated U.S. NCAP guidelines.

To operate effectively, camera-based monitoring solutions need to address a number of challenges, including dynamic lighting conditions that range from complete darkness to bright sunlight, and factors such as driver height, position, skin tones and facial obscuration, such as wearing sunglasses. indie's advanced vision SoCs will enable automotive manufacturers to address these requirements through best-in-class solutions featuring high processing bandwidth, while also achieving ultra-low power, low latency and extremely compact form factors.

"indie's expansion of intelligent, vision-based sensing solutions is another critical step in our mission to save lives via our diverse ADAS and sensor fusion product portfolio,” said Abhay Rai, senior vice president of indie Semiconductor's Vision Business Unit. “Through our partnership with Seeing Machines, indie can implement robust in-cabin driver and occupant monitoring functionality at truly breakthrough performance levels while simplifying hardware and software stack requirements and, in turn, significantly reducing system complexity and total cost.”

“In a mission to get everyone home safely, leading in the deployment of driver and occupant monitoring systems to address emerging safety standards and road safety legislation focused on reducing vehicle-related deaths and injuries becomes critical,” added Nick DiFiore, SVP & GM Automotive, Seeing Machines. “We are delighted that indie chose our world-leading Occula^® NPU for optimized human detection and tracking in their innovative vision SoCs. Together, we are creating next-generation solutions that significantly simplify OEM conformance to ADAS mandates including the safe implementation of L2+ autonomy while reducing the cost of technology for monitoring vehicle occupants.”

About indie

indie is empowering the Autotech revolution with next-generation automotive semiconductors and software platforms. We focus on edge sensors spanning multiple modalities, including LiDAR, radar, ultrasound and computer vision for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), user experience and electrification applications. These technologies represent the core underpinnings of both electric and autonomous vehicles while our advanced user interfaces enabled by our mixed-signal SoCs transform the in-cabin experience to mirror and seamlessly connect to the mobile platforms we rely on every day. We are an approved vendor to Tier 1 partners and our solutions can be found in marquee automotive OEMs around the world. Headquartered in Aliso Viejo, CA, indie has design centers and sales offices in Austin, TX; Boston, MA; Detroit, MI; San Francisco and San Jose, CA; Córdoba, Argentina; Budapest, Hungary; Dresden and Munich, Germany; Cambridge, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; Rabat, Morocco; Haifa, Israel; Quebec City, Canada; Seoul, South Korea; Tokyo, Japan and several locations throughout China.

About Seeing Machines

Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Australia, Seeing Machines is a global company and industry leader in vision-based monitoring technology that enables machines to see, understand and assist people. Seeing Machines' technology portfolio of AI algorithms, embedded processing and optics, power products that need to deliver reliable real-time understanding of vehicle operators. The technology spans the critical measurement of where a driver is looking, through to classification of their cognitive state as it applies to accident risk. Reliable "driver state" measurement is the end-goal of Driver Monitoring Systems (DMS) technology. Seeing Machines develops DMS technology to drive safety for Automotive, Commercial Fleet, Off-road and Aviation. The company has offices in Australia, USA, Europe and Asia, and supplies technology solutions and services to industry leaders in each market vertical.

Safe Harbor Statement

This communication contains “forward-looking statements” (including within the meaning of Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended). Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our future business and financial performance and prospects, and other statements identified by words such as “will likely result,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “believe,” “intend,” “plan,” “project,” “outlook,” “should,” “could,” “may” or words of similar meaning. Such forward-looking statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our management and are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond our control. Actual results and the timing of events may differ materially from the results included in such forward-looking statements. In addition to the factors previously disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 filed with the SEC on April 11, 2022 and in our other public reports filed with the SEC (including those identified under “Risk Factors” therein), the following factors, among others, could cause actual results and the timing of events to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in the forward-looking statements: the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; our reliance on contract manufacturing and outsourced supply chain and the availability of semiconductors and manufacturing capacity; competitive products and pricing pressures; our ability to win competitive bid selection processes and achieve additional design wins; the impact of any acquisitions we may make, including our ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses and risks that the anticipated benefits of any acquisitions may not be fully realized or take longer to realize than expected; our ability to develop, market and gain acceptance for new and enhanced products and expand into new technologies and markets; trade restrictions and trade tensions; our ability to build, staff and integrate new design, testing, sales and marketing facilities throughout the world; and political and economic instability in our target markets. All forward looking statements in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the foregoing cautionary statements.

Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements in this press release, which information set forth herein speaks only as of the date hereof. We do not undertake, and we expressly disclaim, any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this announcement or in our other public filings, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230103005186/en/