DMS pivots to IPM at CES
The relentless race to the bottom in driver monitoring systems could not go on forever.
Typical of automotive OEM purchasing is software pricing procurement so aggressive that it strips DMS technology developers of any chance to thrive - and for some even the funding to survive. Something had to change, and CES just showed that it has.
2025 was a wild ride for the driver monitoring systems industry. Cipia’s automotive assets were swallowed by Harman, with Tobii Autosense closing the year with a life-saving licensing agreement with an unnamed automotive supplier and a new CEO. In order to stay independent, Seeing Machines reduced headcount, with Smart Eye closing new debt-based funding. Last year also saw a strategic coming together of indie Semiconductor and emotion 3D, with Mobileye blogging about a proprietary DMS running natively on its EyeQ ADAS processors - a solution it has yet to show in public.
Developments in the industry last year were mostly the result of a universal decision among OEMs to adopt steering wheel torque sensor solutions to meet compliance with the EU’s General Safety Regulation (GSR) for drowsiness detection. GSR forces OEMs to adopt vision-based solutions for advanced distraction warning, but that comes into force in mid-2026, thus buying the OEMs a 24-month window to delay installing mandated life-saving technology.
In automotive, saving lives always comes second to saving dollars, and that 24-month delay spelt the end of the road for some DMS developers, and a rapidly revised strategic focus for others.
The DNA of any company is exposed when it is faced with an existential threat. For some, the response is helplessness and an inevitable slow march to bankruptcy as talent leaves. For others, it is a call to out-innovate and out-think the prevailing circumstances. At CES we saw the first example of out-innovating and out-thinking the situation, with a technology pivot from Seeing Machines away from traditional driver monitoring and into interior perception mapping (IPM).