Colin's latest on SEE and Guardian Gen 318 Jan 2024 12:18
Https://www.linkedin.com/posts/colin-barnden-1081376_ces2024-guardian-ems-activity-7153703861763903488-73kO?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android
Well worth a read
More thoughts from hashtag#ces2024, this post on Seeing Machines (SM). SM has such a huge tech lead over the competition that it doesn't exhibit on the show floor, instead giving private demonstrations in a suite. I am one of not many people that has actually seen the demo in full, and it was a privilege to be invited in. The company has a vastly different approach to PR and comms than some of its competitors, because the tech speaks for itself.
Case in point: hashtag#Guardian Gen3, which was launched at CES. Put alongside the CAT mining product (DSS) and Guardian Gens 1&2 shows the 20+ years engineering development of SM. Gen3 is a 1-box solution with IR optical path, ECU and 4G modem integrated together. I have held it, it is impressive, and is obviously made by a tier-1 hashtag#EMS manufacturer, probably within the Celestica or Flex families. This is a very serious product which is clearly intended for high volume production and marks a step-change from Gen2.
The first application is "after-manufacture" to meet Europe's hashtag#GSR. When hashtag#OEMs talk about "series-production" it means an assembly line, with vehicles being made in series. Each is built in stages as it progresses down the line, and at the end the finished product rolls off.
"Factory-fit" refers to technology installed on the assembly line. So for automotive, hashtag#DMS could be factory-fitted in the instrument cluster, steering column, or mirror, in a module designed and pre-built by a tier-1. But in commercial vehicles (trucks, busses and coaches) there simply isn't the economy of scale to amortize the engineering costs of integrating the DMS into another module. An exception would be an extremely lean organization with a strategic focus on DMS for commercial vehicles, but the main DMS suppliers are set up for automotive.
The solution? Design, test and validate a 1-box product which is installed after the truck leaves the assembly line ("after-manufacture") but before it leaves the factory. That's what SM has done and that's how Gen3 meets type approval.
This represents a huge shift in supply-chain planning and logistics for SM, and it is assumed the OEM customers will place after-manufacture orders with the EMS provider, which will ship product directly to them. This will take some time to perfect, which is probably why SM is saying the short-term focus for Gen3 is after-manufacture. But give it maybe 12-18 months and the assumption is Gen3 replaces Gen2 as the aftermarket product too.
SM has designed Gen3 to play its trump card. The hardware meets type approval and regulations for hashtag#distracted and hashtag#drowsy driving to comply with GSR. But with a 4G modem, every box can still connect to the Guardian service. Part 2 to follow
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