Colin Barnded - Still Bullish4 Apr 2024 11:28
The history books will record 2024 as the year the #automotive #driver #monitoring #systems market reached a tipping point. Now confirmed with DMS (shown below located above the steering column) is the 2025 Ram Professional 1500 #pickup, and based on illumination patterns seen in the video, this points to another production start for Seeing Machines. Secondary research suggests the Ram 1500 reached #SoP at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP) on February 5th.
That looks to be BMW Group, Ford Motor Company, MINI, Lincoln Motor Company, Ram, and Volkswagen bringing models to SoP in the first half of 2024 with DMS from Seeing Machines. This could explain why the company has been practically silent from a PR perspective so far this year, is staying out of the "design wins" circus, and will instead demonstrate commercial success in the "cars on road" numbers released with the quarterly #KPIs. In 2024, leadership of the DMS market is established using metrics which cannot be gamed, such as delivery.
Seeing Machines has reiterated profitability will be reached at the end of this fiscal year (in the current Apr-Jun quarter), which should be evident either way from the preliminary results and KPIs to be released in August. The next set of KPIs (to be published in May) will likely signal a big clue of progress made.
Ram is a Stellantis brand, and Stellantis appears to be procuring DMS within each of its sub-brands. There are major differences in customer and regulatory requirements across the U.S. and Europe, and within Stellantis there are obviously North American focused brands (like Chrysler, Jeep, and Ram) and European focused brands (like Fiat, Opel, and PSA). Hence procurement at a brand level makes practical sense. The awards so far look to be shared across Seeing Machines and Smart Eye.
The Ram win also looks to be the production debut for Seeing Machines with Valeo as the tier-1. Valeo has come from almost nowhere to be one of the leading tier-1 suppliers for DMS and is often overlooked in the market, yet it has clear DMS wins both on the #ADAS and #infotainment sides, and is alongside Aptiv and Magna International at the top of the rankings. Valeo is assumed to also have a win with Seeing Machines for Renault Group (and maybe a technology transfer into Nissan Motor Corporation in Europe), also with BMW, and maybe with other Stellantis brands, such as Fiat.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/colin-barnden-1081376_automotive-driver-monitoring-activity-7181587224512077824-e8gA?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios
Sign In
Follow the stocks
