Gentherm: Changing Our Relationship to Automotive Seating

Regulators around the world are increasingly focused on driver attentiveness to the driving task including everything from eating, smoking, and talking, to drowsiness or incapacitation. Seating supplier Gentherm flipped the script at this year's InCabin Sensing event by shifting the conversation from "driver monitoring" of distraction to stress detection and mitigation.

Gentherm's scientists have been looking at a wide range of driver behavior and sensing circumstances. The cumulative effort defines the privileged place of the driver's seat - actually all automotive seating - as a completely unique customer engagement space. It is almost as if an automotive seating manufacturer and the maker of the car is "holding" drivers and passengers in the palm of their own hand.

Car seats are unlike any other seating environment. Seats are equipped with a wide variety of sensors along with a host of other electronic systems capable of heating, cooling, massaging, or jostling their occupants.

There are safety, liability, and privacy implications as well as marketing and customer engagement opportunities inherent in the design of automobile seats. Understanding the condition of the driver is now recognized as critically important to safe driving, but using technology to actively assist drivers and make the driving task more pleasant is an entirely new user experience space.

The challenge arises from A) collecting and interpreting the data gathered on the driver (and passengers) in real time and B) having the systems in place to deliver carefully calibrated interventions (i.e. heating, cooling, massage) to ensure attentiveness while mitigating tension. The first challenge is sensing. At last year's InCabin Sensing event, one speaker defined the challenges and guidelines for in-vehicle sensing:

• Cables may be okay for research, but not an option for day-to-day use
• Systems must be unobtrusive
• Systems must be ubiquitous
• Wearables may be useful – but unreliable
• Systems must be robust to motion artifacts and environmental conditions
• Systems must be “invisible”
• Physical sensors work, but have limited diagnostic power

Gentherm set out to measure and mitigate stress and was forced to confront these challenges directly. Gentherm measured stress in its lab in five ways, according to the company:

1. Using a subjective "0" to "10" scale
2. Galvanic skin conductance - i.e. "sweaty palms" - (some companies are trying to measure this from the steering wheel - but it is difficult)
3. Breathing frequency - at rest - 12 breaths/minute; 18 breaths/minute when stressed - most driver monitoring systems (DMS) can measure this
4. Heart rate - Can increase with stress, but results vary and can be impacted by other conditions - current DMS can measure
5. Heart rate variability - doable via DMS, but difficult to interpret precisely

Of course, in the lab, Gentherm has been able to outfit test subjects with hardware to measure brainwaves - Gamma, Beta, Alpha, Theta, Delta. But no one wants to wear a brainwave detection device while driving.

An executive from Hyundai Mobis presenting at the InCabin Sensing event talked about the company's m.brain wearable for detecting brainwaves. But, again, the guidelines described at last year's event indicated that wearables are "useful" but "unreliable.

Gentherm estimates that more than 300M people around the world suffer from some level of anxiety and 25% get some form of treatment. Data also points to the 53M downloads of apps designed to target stress.

Gentherm has configured its seating solutions to reduce stress in addition to mitigating distraction and drowsiness. The company has also prioritized the reduction of discomfort associated with menstrual cramps.

Gentherm executives say there are no objective measures of menstrual pain. Using subjective data, the company has assessed subjective pain perception from the abdomen, lower back, and thigh, reporting a 30%-50% reduction in cramp intensity across those three regions. Given the fact that, by some estimates, women account for more than 60% of new car purchases and "influence" 85% of car purchases, Gentherm's research investments appear to be money well spent.

As for measuring the mental state of drivers, help may be on the way. Neumo is a startup announcing its arrival in the market just this week along with its plan to attend the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.

Neumo's Neurotech Solution is a first-of-its-kind, patent-protected technology designed to detect driver and passenger brainwave activity in an unobtrusive, discreet manner. When used together with camera-based driver monitoring technology, Neumo's solution is capable of enhancing driving safety, health and wellness, and personalization experiences, the company says.

Using headrest-mounted sensing technology, Neumo's solution is designed to enable automobile manufacturers and fleet operators to detect and, potentially, respond to changes in driver's or passenger's mental condition - attentiveness, fatigue - with fewer false positives, in the words of Chief Executive Officer Niall Berkery.

It is perhaps no surprise that seating systems are increasingly playing an essential role in enhancing driving safety. Careful attention to the design and configuration of these systems is bringing uniquely pleasing driving experiences to the market including in the Cadillac Celestiq, the first vehicle to make Gentherm's ClimateSense technology available.

Just as Neumo will be available for meetings at CES 2025, Gentherm will be showing and demonstrating its solutions in Harman International's booth at the January event. Now would be a good time to make an appointment.