“Valeo is the worldwide market leader for Ultrasonic Parking Assistance”
Joachim Mathes studied Electronic Engineering at the Berufsakademie Stuttgart. Subsequently he joined the sensor development of SWF Auto-Electric. After having worked on new magnetic and optical sensors for chassis systems, he took over the lead of the Ultrasonic Park Assist System. When Valeo acquired the company, he became Project Management Director of the new Division before joining the newly-created Switches and Detection Systems Branch as R&D Director.
Driving Vision News: What is now your current role at Valeo?
Joachim Mathes: My current role covers two functions: I lead the Driving Assistance Domain at Valeo and am in charge of R&D for the Detection Systems activity. This includes the ultrasonic, radar and camera developments we do worldwide as well as their transversal application to enhance visibility. This ranges from new intelligent lighting systems that manage light distribution and intensity according to the traffic situation to automation and efficiency increase of wiping and cleaning systems.
DVN: Big part of Valeo communication is about the 3 domains. Could you tell us more about the Driving Assistance Domain and what are Valeo targets in this domain?
J.M.: Valeo is a leading supplier of Lighting and Wiping Systems worldwide and has an important share in the growing market for Detection Systems. The objective of the Domain is to foster transversal innovation that leads to functions that are easily understood and instinctively useful to the end customer.
Our target is to leverage the technologies we have introduced to the market, namely Ultrasonics, Infrared, Radar and Camera-based sensors to created new functions. This will increasingly be done through networking information from multiple sources and model the driver intention, the vehicle state and the outside world to assess the proper amount of support a driver needs in the given situation.