Sonatus and Smart Eye Collaborate for Advanced Vehicle Automation

SUNNYVALE, Calif., and GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Dec 12, 2024—Sonatus Inc., a leading vehicle software company accelerating the transition to software-defined vehicles (SDVs), announced a collaboration with Smart Eye, the global leader in Driver Monitoring System and Interior Sensing solutions, renowned for advancing human-machine interaction through its cutting-edge AI technology. Unlike conventional vehicles, SDVs improve over time and add new capabilities like other digital devices. This collaboration pairs the powerful SDV infrastructure capabilities from Sonatus, especially Sonatus Automator AI, with the diverse driver and occupant monitoring capabilities from Smart Eye to enable OEMs to offer drivers unique personalization and safety features.

Sonatus Automator AI is a powerful and flexible in-vehicle software orchestration tool that allows OEMs to instantly create and deploy no-code automation routines—based on “if-this-then-that” logic—from the cloud to vehicles. This capability enables OEMs to quickly add new features, automate functional testing, and intelligently trigger diagnostics scans at any point during a vehicle’s lifecycle. These automation routines consist of trigger conditions followed by one or a series of actions, forming a workflow that automates different in-vehicle tasks. For example, it can notify a driver of a hazard, adjust vehicle settings, or activate context-dependent features like Teen Driving Mode. The safety module for Sonatus Automator AI, Automator Safety Interlock, recently achieved ISO 26262 ASIL-D certification allowing it to be utilized in more safety-critical applications, including when the vehicle is being driven. 

In turn, Smart Eye’s Cabin Monitoring System not only detects vehicle occupancy and driver awareness but also provides a deep understanding of passenger behavior and contextual events, delivering a rich array of data points that fuel real-time vehicle intelligence. Combined, these capabilities create a powerful toolkit that supports seamless integration of new offerings without requiring extensive programming or validation cycles.

“Smart Eye is an ideal partner: their industry-leading capabilities for cabin monitoring can provide OEM engineers a wide array of detected events that, along with Automator AI, can create innovative new offerings with our combined technologies,” said Dr. John Heinlein, Chief Marketing Officer, Sonatus. “We recently announced that Sonatus Automator AI’s functional safety module, Automator Safety Interlock, is certified by UL Solutions to ISO26262, achieving ASIL-D capability, which unlocks the opportunity to employ Automator AI in more situations to create new valuable offerings for OEMs and their customers.”

At the Consumer Electronics Show 2025 (CES 2025), Sonatus will be showcasing its new demonstration vehicle, a classic 1970 Ford Bronco, restored and converted to an Electric Vehicle and outfitted with Sonatus’ SDV technology. This unique demo vehicle will feature real-time personalization using Sonatus Automator, where attendees can see how driver preferences and road conditions dynamically shape the driving experience. One of these demonstrations will use Smart Eye’s Cabin Monitoring System to detect a passenger and trigger driving mode actions, showcasing how combined technologies enable OEMs to rapidly deploy safety-critical features and personalized experiences.

"At Smart Eye, we are committed to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in vehicle safety and personalization. By combining our advanced Cabin Monitoring System with Sonatus’ cutting-edge SDV infrastructure, we’re enabling OEMs to deliver an entirely new level of intelligent, adaptive, and secure mobility experiences,” said Martin Kranz, CEO, Smart Eye. This collaboration represents a significant step toward a future where vehicles intuitively understand and respond to the needs of their occupants."

To learn more about these solutions, visit Sonatus at CES 2025 in West Hall booth #4422, or request a meeting at https://www.sonatus.com/sonatus-at-ces-2025/, and nearby visit Smart Eye at booth #3840 or request a meeting at https://www.smarteye.se/smart-eye-at-ces-2025/

About Sonatus

Sonatus is accelerating vehicle software innovation and the transition towards software-defined vehicles with artificial intelligence. The diverse products comprising the Sonatus Vehicle Platform serve as the key building blocks that allow automotive companies and their ecosystem to fast forward to the future of mobility and deliver continuous improvements in costs, capabilities, reliability, and user experience over the vehicle lifespan. Sonatus’ award-winning software platform is in mass production in over 3 million vehicles from Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis. The company has raised more than $110 million USD with world-class automotive, technology, and venture investors including Foxconn, Hyundai Motor Group’s Kia Corporation, LG Electronics, Marvell, NEC and Translink Orchestrating Future Fund, SAIC Capital, Translink Capital, UMC Capital, and Wanxiang. Sonatus is headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA (Silicon Valley), with offices in Bangalore, Dublin, Detroit, Kraków, Paris, Pune, Shanghai, Seoul, Taipei, and Tokyo. For more information visit www.sonatus.com.

Sonatus and the Sonatus logo are trademarks of Sonatus, Inc. The Sonatus trademark is registered in the United States and may be registered in other countries. © 2024 Sonatus, Inc.

About Smart Eye

Smart Eye is the leading provider of Human Insight AI, technology that understands, supports and predicts human behavior in complex environments. The company is on a mission to bridge the gap between humans and machines for a safe and sustainable future. Supported by Affectiva and iMotions – companies it acquired in 2021 – Smart Eye’s multimodal software and hardware solutions provide unparalleled insight into human behavior.

In automotive, Smart Eye’s driver monitoring systems and interior sensing solutions improve road safety and the mobility experience. The company’s eye tracking technology and iMotions biosensor software platform are also used in behavioral research to enable advanced research in academic and commercial sectors. In media analytics, Affectiva’s Emotion AI provides the world’s largest brands and market researchers with a deeper understanding of how consumers engage with content, products, and services.

Founded in 1999, Smart Eye is a global company headquartered in Sweden, with customers including NASA, Nissan, Boeing, Honeywell, Volvo, GM, BMW, Polestar, Geely, Harvard University, 26 percent of the Fortune Global 500 companies, and over 1,300 research organizations around the world.

Visit www.smarteye.ai for more information.