• News
  • 28 November 2020

New solutions for sanitising autonomous vehicles

When autonomous vehicles began to look more promising, many companies started to consider how this could revolutionise taxi and ride sharing industries.

But COVID-19 has totally disrupted this concept because of a fear of getting into a vehicle that others might have contaminated.

Gentex engineers are now tackling this public-health issue of vehicle-cabin cleanliness.

Dr Lydia Bourouiba, an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, specialising in fluid dynamics has reported that COVID-19, can be disbursed through laughing, yelling, sneezing and simply talking. A sneeze can unleash a turbulent cloud of micron-sized droplets at velocities of 100 ft/sec and travel up to 8m.

Possible solutions including smoke-detection devices that use optical electronics to look for particulates; Gentex-designed-and-built cameras; light sensors; nanomaterials capable of sensing health threats to driver and/or passengers and, all of which can be analysed with the help of artificial intelligence.