Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems
After 18 months of development and testing, Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems, an operating unit of Honeywell International, has shipped its first XVision units to market.

XVision is the first infrared night vision system developed specifically for trucks, buses and other
commercial vehicles. It uses an exterior-mounted, heat-sensing, infrared camera to detect and instantly transmit images to an in-cab display unit. The images help drivers see pedestrians, animals and objects in front of the vehicle up to 1,500 feet away or more – three to five times further than a driver can see at night with headlights.

When viewing the display unit, the driver sees a real-time, black and white, thermal image of the road in which warmer objects, such as people or animals, show as bright white, while cooler objects, like bridge abutments, guardrails, or trees, show in darker shades of gray or black. The camera can sense temperature differences as slight as 0.4° F. Because the camera is not affected by light, the display image is not susceptible to glare from on-coming headlights.

The company says it has completed four-season testing of the system in both a simulated laboratory and on trucks throughout the United States and Canada-including parameters that have included harsh Canadian winters as well as hot extremes.