Automotive Engineering - February 2025 - 10

TECHNOLOGY REPORT
CES 2025
Gentex improves
dimmable glass visors
with vanity mirror
Number 31 in the
WeatherTech SportsCar
Championship, from
Whelen Engineering
Cadillac Racing, was at
the Bosch booth at
CES 2025.
" I'm never going to say we're going to
go all in the software or all in the hardware, "
he said. " I'm always going to find
a level of balance between both. We still
want to be a very strong hardware supplier
because you need great actuators
in your vehicle, or steering gears or
braking systems, or whatever it may be. "
One place where Bosch is advancing
its hardware development is with the
hydrogen economy. Thomas said that
even though the H2 market has slowed
a bit, in general, Bosch remains involved
with its government and corporate
partners, including by developing better
electrolyzer technology in order to
produce hydrogen energy in the regions
where it will be used. Improved
pumps are also part of the picture.
" We're still heavily involved in hydrogen, "
Thomas said. " With our Rexroth
division, we've developed a way to deliver
hydrogen in a much more effective
way. One of the most inefficient things
in the market today is how you fuel a
hydrogen vehicle. You lose between 60
and 70% of the energy during the fueling
process. Our Rexroth group has developed
a new pump that actually delivers
the hydrogen in a much more effective
way, so you're not losing a lot of
the energy to the environment. "
Where the next administration will go
when it comes to supporting hydrogen
is an open question, Thomas said.
" We all know that the new government
might either go as heavy into hydrogen
as before, or not, " he said.
" We're closely tied with the DOE, and
10 February 2025
If you are someone who has wrestled
with a too-small sun visor in your vehicle,
Gentex's improved dimmable sunshades
might be one of the most practical
innovations to get excited about at
this year's CES in Las Vegas.
Gentex sells 50 million dimmable
glass items annually, including the windows
on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
The prototype sun visors are transparent,
behaving like high-tech sunglasses
for your car. They allow drivers to continue
viewing the entire road while
avoiding glare, and with the flick of a
button, can turn into a vanity mirror.
" The feedback we got when we
showed this last year was, 'well, what
about the vanity mirror?' " said Steve
Downing, Gentex president and CEO.
" We're showing cool stuff, and you
want to talk about the vanity mirror?
But, we take that stuff seriously, so we
went back and created a polarized reflector
as part of that stack. "
Gentex's offerings at CES align with
Motorsport race driver Robert Wickens
appears on stage with president of Bosch in
North America Paul Thomas and Bosch board
member Tanja Rückert at CES 2025 to discuss
the company's development of hand brake
controllers that allow him to continue to race
after a debilitating crash in 2018.
we're happy. We're happy with what
we're seeing related to the production of
hydrogen in the region and usage either
in fuel cells [or combustible hydrogen].
We're still a partner with a large commercial
vehicle manufacturer that makes
hydrogen trucks and [with] combustible
hydrogen, there's lots of discussions now
with the government on whether that
qualifies as a zero-emission vehicle or
not. We're just going to see how the regulatory
environment works out. "
Sebastian Blanco
several key industry trends, including
the push for greater automation, enhanced
safety and seamless connectivity.
While dimmable glass and integrated
monitoring systems are designed to
meet immediate regulatory and consumer
needs, features like HomeLink
tap into increased demand for interoperability
between vehicles and other
connected technologies.
The dimmable sun visors permit the
car to present key driver information,
such as alerts or navigation cues, directly
in the driver's line of sight.
Combined, these innovations highlight a
growing trend toward integrating adaptive
materials into vehicle interiors to
improve functionality and safety.
The company also showed off a filmbased
electrochromic sunroof that allows
drivers to control sunlight and
glare from large panoramic roofs. Unlike
other dimmable windows, the sunroof
doesn't need electricity to stay dark, so
AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING
BOTH IMAGES: STEVE FECHT
Automotive Engineering - February 2025

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