Automotive night vision research: The rise of infrared AEB, with automotive infrared night vision experiencing a 384.7% year-on-year increase from January to September.

From January to September 2025, the installation volume of infrared night vision cameras for new passenger cars in China reached 19,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 384.7%, mainly driven by the sales of models such as Bao 8, M-Hero M817, and Geely LEVC L380. By vehicle class, infrared night vision is mainly equipped in SUV models, with an installation volume of 17,148 units, accounting for 90.5% of the total installation volume. Representative models include the Leopard 8 and M-Hero M817.

In the SUV market, models equipped with infrared night vision are mainly distributed in the price range above 300,000 yuan. Among them, 400,000-500,000 yuan range has the largest installation volume, reaching 6,915 units, accounting for 40.3% of the total infrared night vision installation volume in the SUV market. Representative models include Bao 8 and Cadillac XT5. In the future, with the commercialization of L3 intelligent driving, which places rigid requirements on the perception reliability in extreme scenarios such as nighttime, rain, fog, and glare, it is expected that by 2030, the installation volume of automotive infrared night vision cameras in China will reach 146,000 units.

In terms of market share, Raytron Technology and Xuanyuan IDrive dominate China's automotive NVS (Infrared Night Vision) market, with a combined market share of 89.3%. Among them, from January to September 2025, Raytron Technology's NVS market share reached 73.8%, an increase of 68.5 percentage points compared with the same period last year, mainly driven by models such as the Bao 8 and Yangwang U8L. Xuanyuan IDrive's NVS market share reached 15.5%, mainly equipped in models such as the M-Hero M817 and M-Hero 917.

Rise of Infrared AEB: Infrared and Multi-Sensor Fusion is the Inevitable Trend

From the perspective of regulations and policies, the 2027 version of C-NCAP introduces test and evaluation scenarios such as rain and fog simulation, and has significantly expanded nighttime tests. NHTSA's FMVSS 127 regulation stipulates that starting from September 2029, all new vehicles must be equipped with Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Braking (PAEB) that is effective under various lighting conditions. Driven by regulations, the application of infrared imaging technology in the AEB field will rise.

For example, the ZEEKR 9X launched in September 2025 is equipped with infrared AEB functionality. It can identify pedestrians or other obstacles and brake in a timely manner even in dense fog that is invisible to the human eye. This infrared thermal imaging technology is provided by Raytron Technology. Infrared perception data is integrated into the intelligent driving system, providing key and reliable independent perception data for AEB in scenarios where the performance of lidar and visible light cameras degrades.

Magna's 5th-generation thermal sensing sensor adds support for automatic emergency braking. It can detect animals, pedestrians, and cyclists over 100 meters ahead of the vehicle. It can provide viewing angles of 24 degrees, 32 degrees, and 50 degrees according to customer needs. The algorithm can run in a dedicated ECU or be hosted by the automaker's Central Computing Unit (CCU).

In December 2024, infrared sensor company Teledyne FLIR and VSL Labs jointly tested a thermal imaging-based Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Braking (PAEB) system to verify its nighttime performance under the FMVSS 127 standard (effective in 2029). The test vehicle was equipped with a Teledyne FLIR thermal imaging camera, high-definition radar, and visible light camera. Through multi-sensor fusion and AI algorithms, it successfully passed all nighttime test scenarios.

The fusion of infrared and other sensors can achieve complementary environmental adaptability and solve the problem of perception failure in corner cases, which is the future development trend.

For example, Magna is developing an "Early Fusion" solution combining thermal imaging sensors and imaging radar. In this solution, the thermal imaging sensor detects pedestrians through thermal signals, and the imaging radar provides spatial positioning information; the fusion of their raw data enables real-time object evaluation in dark environments. For early fusion, Magna considers two variants. One is "mid-level fusion": one sensor provides object data, and the other provides data generated in the early steps of the processing chain (usually pixel data from the imager or detection data from the radar). The second is "low-level fusion": all sensors provide data generated in the early steps of the processing chain, and the fusion process completes object classification simultaneously.
 
In October 2025, Raytron Technology and Breton Technology jointly launched a multi-dimensional sensing solution of "infrared thermal imaging + 4D imaging radar" for unmanned mining scenarios. In Breton Technology's unmanned driving system, infrared thermal imaging is responsible for capturing thermal radiation signals, and 4D imaging radar parses spatial relationships. The fusion of the two technologies achieves multi-dimensional data complementarity of "spatial coordinates + temperature characteristics", solving perception problems in harsh environments such as rain, fog, smoke, low light, and strong light.

AI Technology Improves Nighttime Recognition Rate and Enhances Visual Perception Capabilities of Sentinel and Surround View Functions

The M-Hero M817 launched in August 2025 is equipped with an intelligent infrared night vision system provided by Xuanyuan IDrive, featuring AI early warning functionality: the system automatically identifies and marks potential risks such as pedestrians, animals, and vehicles, and issues timely alarms. It can detect targets over 400 meters away, with a pedestrian recognition distance of over 120 meters and a vehicle recognition distance of over 150 meters. It shares the OTA (Over-the-Air) upgrade capability of the HarmonyOS cockpit, keeping it updated with frequent use.

In April 2025, the Hyptec HL debuted the "Night Pupil" night vision system, which can warn of animal crossings 150 meters in advance. With the help of a pixel-level AI imaging engine and low-light color reconstruction technology, it can make the night present brightness and full-color effects close to those of the day, enhancing the visual perception of functions such as sentinel, 360° surround view, autonomous driving, and driving Vlog. In the future, this technology will also be continuously optimized for integration with autonomous driving systems through OTA upgrades.

The Fangchengbao Bao 8 launched in March 2025 is equipped with an infrared night vision system, which can cover a maximum field of view of 300 meters, and can identify vehicles within 120 meters, pedestrians and two-wheelers within 90 meters. It has a built-in deep learning neural network that can automatically distinguish 128 types of road targets and highlight the 3-5 most dangerous targets with different color frames. Through HUD projection, the driver can grasp the risk distribution without looking down.