Intelligent High Beams available on Lexus LS
Gentex has announced that it is shipping interior and exterior auto-dimming mirrors and its SmartBeam High-Beam Assist (called Intelligent High Beams by the car maker) for the 2010 Lexus LS. This is the first Lexus vehicle to offer SmartBeam in Europe and Japan and the first SmartBeam program offered in Japan.
Gentex is the leading supplier of automatic-dimming rearview mirrors to the worldwide automotive industry. In addition, the company shipped approximately 295,000 SmartBeam units in 2008 to its automotive customers making it the leading provider of automotive-grade camera-based active safety systems.
An interior auto-dimming mirror is standard on all Lexus LS models. A compass, utilising Gentex's proprietary Z-Nav technology that uses a highly-accurate sensor designed to determine a vehicle's directional heading, is available on LS models without navigation. In many markets, the new LS offers driver- and passenger-side exterior auto-dimming mirrors to further help decrease headlamp glare of rearward-approaching vehicles.
SmartBeam High-Beam Headlamp Assist is standard on the 460L trim level in North America. In Japan and Europe, the feature is available on various trim levels including the 460, 460L, 600h and 600hL. SmartBeam uses a miniature camera-on-a-chip combined with algorithmic decision making to automatically turn a vehicle's high beams on and off according to surrounding traffic conditions. The system is designed to maximize a vehicle's forward lighting and to eliminate this repetitive and sometimes burdensome task.
"The LS program represents the first time that Lexus will offer SmartBeam on vehicle models in Japan and Europe," said Enoch Jen, senior vice president Gentex. "SmartBeam has become a popular feature as demonstrated by the more than a million of the imager systems in operation on vehicles throughout Europe and North America. We are hopeful that the LS program is the first of many Lexus and Toyota models to offer this feature to its global markets."