Faurecia and Immersion Partner for Haptic Automotive Technologies

Faurecia, one of the world’s leading automotive technology companies and Immersion Corporation (NASDAQ: IMMR), the leading developer and provider of technologies for haptics, today announced a multi-year license agreement, providing Faurecia with access to Immersion’s haptic technologies and solutions. The agreement enables Faurecia to develop advanced, interactive haptic user interfaces with the latest innovations from Immersion.

“Cars in the near future will be built with smart technology, which allows intuitive touch based interactions. This agreement with Immersion expands our technology ecosystem and illustrates our forward-thinking approach to meeting the technology needs of occupants for a connected and personalized experience,” declared Edouard Da Silva, Display Global Product Line Director at Faurecia Clarion Electronics.

“Haptics brings new capabilities to automotive HMIs. It enables tactile surfaces to readily respond to users and creates new opportunities for OEMs to re-imagine the user experience,” said Jared Smith, Interim CEO at Immersion. “We’re excited to work with Faurecia to go beyond the traditional approach to automotive HMI systems and explore new ways that we can help the driver safely interact with the car.”

According to IHS Markit, the use of haptics will continue to gain traction, and multimodal HMI systems are expected to become the vehicle standard in the upcoming years. In addition, capacitive touch-based systems will become the primary display interface, with 95% of center stack display enabled with touch technology by 2026.*

Faurecia HMI solutions are designed with usability in mind, with intuitive technologies allowing occupants to interact by touch, gesture or voice to manage infotainment, seating or thermal comfort options. As an example, Faurecia has developed a scalable multi-view graphical interface for IVI, called Trenza. To reduce driver distraction, this technology uses priority management when resizing windows. It also allows users to organize their most frequently used apps or services by simply dragging and dropping them into an easy to access series of options on the top of the display screen.

Immersion’s Haptics for Automotive Solution provides automotive tier-one suppliers with innovative use cases, reference designs for haptic implementations, and software and technologies to facilitate the use of haptics in advanced automotive HMIs. Immersion continues to innovate, provide new technologies, and license automotive tier-one suppliers and other component suppliers in the automotive market.

The agreement between Immersion and Faurecia is a license to Immersion’s patented technology as well as haptic technology solutions for automotive touch screens and controls.

*Source: IHS Markit – AutoTechInsight Webinar: The Future of User Interface and User Experience & SID Display Week Review; August 2020

About Immersion

Immersion Corporation (NASDAQ: IMMR) is the leading innovator of touch feedback technology, also known as haptics. The company invents, accelerates, and scales haptic experiences by providing technology solutions for mobile, automotive, gaming, and consumer electronics. Haptic technology creates immersive and realistic experiences that enhance digital interactions by engaging users’ sense of touch. Immersion is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with offices worldwide. Learn more at www.immersion.com.

About Faurecia

Founded in 1997, Faurecia has grown to become a major player in the global automotive industry. With 248 industrial sites, 37 R&D centers and 115,500 employees in 37 countries, Faurecia is a global leader in its four areas of business: Seating, Interiors, Clarion Electronics and Clean Mobility. Faurecia has focused its technology strategy on providing solutions for the “Cockpit of the Future” and “Sustainable Mobility”. In 2019, the Group posted sales of €17.8 billion. Faurecia is listed on the Euronext Paris stock exchange. For more information, please visit www.faurecia.com