Smart Eye and Green Hills Debut Integrated Safety Platform to Power Next-Gen Cars

LAS VEGAS, NV – January 05, 2026 – As the automotive industry accelerates its transition toward the software-defined vehicle, two technology leaders are unveiling a collaboration at CES 2026 designed to solve one of the sector's most complex safety challenges. Smart Eye, a frontrunner in AI-based driver monitoring systems (DMS), and Green Hills Software, a specialist in embedded safety and security, are demonstrating a production-ready platform that seamlessly integrates safety-critical applications into a single, consolidated computing unit.

The joint solution showcases Smart Eye’s advanced DMS software running on Green Hills' ASIL-certified INTEGRITY® real-time operating system (RTOS). By enabling this safety-critical function to coexist securely with other applications like a digital instrument cluster on a single Engine Control Unit (ECU), the partnership offers automakers a clear and efficient path to meeting stringent new safety regulations while simplifying the vehicle's complex electronic architecture.

The Unseen Copilot Mandated by Law

The push for sophisticated driver monitoring is no longer a luxury feature but a rapidly growing global mandate. Regulators, alarmed by statistics on accidents caused by driver distraction and fatigue, are enforcing strict new rules. The European Union’s General Safety Regulation (GSR) now requires DMS in all new vehicle models type-approved since 2024, a rule that will extend to all new vehicles sold in the EU starting in 2026.

Simultaneously, the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), whose five-star safety ratings heavily influence consumer choice, has made DMS a prerequisite for achieving its top score since 2023. With a vast majority of automakers targeting a five-star rating, the market pressure is immense. Similar regulatory momentum is building in the United States, where bodies like the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) are widely expected to introduce their own DMS requirements by 2027. This regulatory landscape has transformed DMS from a novel technology into a non-negotiable component of modern vehicle safety, creating an urgent need for reliable, certifiable, and easily integrated solutions.

Navigating the Software-Defined Vehicle Revolution

This demand for advanced safety features coincides with the auto industry’s fundamental shift toward the software-defined vehicle (SDV). In this new paradigm, a car's functions and features are increasingly controlled by software, not hardware, allowing for over-the-air (OTA) updates, new business models, and a more dynamic user experience. A key enabler of the SDV is ECU consolidation, where tasks once spread across dozens of individual processors are now being combined onto a few powerful computing platforms.

This consolidation creates what is known as a "mixed-criticality" environment. On a single chip, a safety-critical application, like a DMS that must operate flawlessly to prevent an accident, runs alongside a non-critical one, like the infotainment system. The paramount challenge is ensuring absolute isolation between them; a glitch or security breach in the media player must have zero possibility of interfering with the driver monitoring function. This principle, known as "freedom-from-interference," is a foundational requirement for building safe and secure SDVs.

Achieving this level of integration and isolation is a significant hurdle for automakers. It involves immense complexity in software development, validation, and certification, often delaying time-to-market and increasing costs. This is precisely the pain point the Smart Eye and Green Hills collaboration is designed to eliminate.

An Integrated Blueprint for Safety and Efficiency

The demonstration at CES 2026 provides a tangible blueprint for how automakers can overcome these challenges. It features Smart Eye’s DMS, which holds a commanding market position with over 360 design wins from 23 global OEMs, operating on top of Green Hills Software's INTEGRITY RTOS. INTEGRITY is renowned in safety-critical industries, from avionics to automotive, and its architecture is certified to the highest levels of functional safety (ISO 26262 ASIL D) and security—its predecessor was the first operating system ever certified to the NSA's highest EAL 6+ High Robustness standard.

In the live demo, a driving simulator generates real-world events that are fed into the vehicle network. When Smart Eye's AI-powered software detects that the driver is distracted or drowsy, it triggers an event that is broadcast across the network. The digital instrument cluster, running on the same ECU but in a separate, protected partition, immediately displays a visual warning, such as “Attention Required.” This entire sequence is logged and transmitted to the cloud for analysis, showcasing a complete, end-to-end data pipeline.

“We’re proud to collaborate with Green Hills Software to demonstrate a truly production-focused approach to integrating driver monitoring into modern vehicle architectures,” said Martin Krantz, CEO of Smart Eye. “This joint solution shows how OEMs can bring safety-critical driver monitoring to market faster by combining our proven DMS software with a secure, consolidated compute platform designed for the challenging demands of today’s vehicles.”

This pre-integrated and pre-validated approach drastically reduces the engineering effort required from OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. It provides them with a trusted foundation, shortening development and validation cycles and accelerating their ability to deploy compliant safety features across their vehicle lineups.

A Strategic Alliance for the Road Ahead

The partnership represents a powerful strategic alignment of two market leaders. Smart Eye brings its deep expertise in Human Insight AI and understanding human behavior, while Green Hills provides the impregnable, reliable software foundation necessary to run such critical applications safely. By combining their strengths, they offer more than just two pieces of technology; they deliver a holistic solution.

“By pairing Smart Eye’s industry-leading driver monitoring software with our INTEGRITY RTOS and development tools, we’re delivering to OEMs and Tier 1s a clear path to deploy mixed-criticality applications safely and efficiently,” stated Dan Mender, VP of Business Development at Green Hills Software. “This demo underscores how our combined technologies help customers accelerate the development of next-generation in-cabin safety systems, reduce integration efforts, and ensure freedom-from-interference.”

This collaboration is emblematic of the future of the automotive supply chain, where deep software partnerships are becoming as crucial as traditional hardware sourcing. By offering a platform that is not only technologically advanced but also designed for efficient production and deployment, the two companies are positioning themselves as key enablers of the next generation of safer, more intelligent, and seamlessly connected automobiles.