Raytheon Seeks Deal to Install Night Vision System in Hummers

[Erod]

Well it seems that nighvision will come as an option on the H2



Raytheon Seeks Deal to Install Night Vision System in Hummers
The Boston Globe

By Ross Kerber

November 18, 2003



Raytheon Co. says its NightDriver infrared system can spot a pedestrian on a darkened road up to a quarter-mile ahead, more than four times the distance of standard auto headlights.



The question is, can it pick out a willing buyer? Sales are dwindling from a four-year-old arrangement Raytheon struck with General Motors Corp. to install infrared sensors on Cadillacs, and the carmaker may drop the system from future models.



Now Raytheon believes it has a better customer base in its sights: owners of Hummers, the hulking SUVs derived from the military Humvee.



These people tend to be younger than Cadillac owners, wealthier, and drawn to gizmos - "early adopters," in marketing-speak.



Early signs suggest the infrared is locking on.



"It was one of those things that I wanted so badly," said Steve Chan, 42, a Santa Clara, Calif., engineering manager active in Hummer clubs. He says he pestered Raytheon managers to be the first to buy NightDriver after he saw it demonstrated at the South Bend, Ind., headquarters of AM General LLC, which manufactures some Hummers for GM.



Chan succeeded: In January he received the system, now mounted in front of the windshield of his Hummer H1, which has a list price of more than $100,000.



"It's really cool to have, like a DVD player inside the vehicle, or a GPS, whether you use it or not," said Chan, referring to the vehicle's global positioning system. Like many other Hummer owners he calls himself "a gadget person." He has set up a wireless network in his home to link the family's three laptops and he owns several low-light scopes, one of which he uses to hunt with a $30,000 sniper rifle.



Another owner of a NightDriver-equipped Hummer, Dave Reed of Austin, Texas, chats by ham radio with people in Jordan and other faraway lands.



He also has astronomy gear: solar-observation binoculars to track sun storms and an 18-inch reflecting telescope that he built himself to get a closer look at stars and galaxies. Others in the Hummer community have outfitted their trucks with satellite dishes to maintain high-speed Internet connections, or installed snorkels for water-crossings.



"A lot of the appeal is thinking about what's the latest gadget you can add," said Reed, a computer researcher at the University of Texas.



Said Stuart Klapper, executive director of transportation products at Raytheon's commercial infrared unit in Dallas, "There's a tendency that people who drive the H1 or H2 like all the cool new hardware."



At least they've got the resources to buy NightDriver, sold through Hummer dealers at prices starting under $4,000. The new Hummer H2, the smaller of the brand's two models, has a $49,190 list price, weighs 6,400 pounds, and gets about 12 miles per gallon. GM says the average Hummer owner makes more than $200,000 a year and often spends tens of thousands of dollars on extras.



"With accessories on Hummers, it's unlike any other car. People want everything" said Michael P. Gaughran, sales manager at Hummer Village of Norwood.



NightDriver hasn't reached Gaughran's dealership or others in New England yet, but in Durham, N.H., Manny MacMillan, director of the New England Hummer Owners Group, said he expects his members will be interested. "Some of our people really enjoy technology," he said.



NightDriver originated in the gear Raytheon sells for tasks like such as aiming tank cannons, but the Waltham-based company makes little of the military origins. Enthusiasts say few veterans can afford civilian Hummers anyway.



Infrared imaging distinguishes objects by the heat they emit, which is transmitted as energy with a longer wavelength than light in the visible spectrum. NightDriver includes a forward-looking camera and processing gear that feeds ghostly images to a screen mounted near the driver, like an extra rearview mirror.



NightDriver makes some objects visible at longer ranges than they can be seen in headlight beams, Raytheon says, up to 15 seconds ahead at 60 miles per hour compared with just 3.5 seconds for headlights only, in clear weather. People who have used NightDriver say it draws their eyes to the outlines of people, animals, and hot structures across a wide field of vision.



"If you see something that's hot, you recognize it as potentially something alive," said Reed, in Texas. He added the infrared device to his Hummer H1 to help avoid deer, and now notices many more of them along the roadside. Two weeks ago he also spotted children trick-or-treating on Halloween.



Most of the infrared industry works for military customers, but demand from commercial and local law-enforcement agencies makes up a $1 billion worldwide market that is growing at 15 percent a year, partly because of homeland-security spending, according to research firm Maxtech International Inc. of Fairfield, Conn. FLIR Systems Inc. of Portland, Ore., is the largest producer in nonmilitary markets, followed by Waltham-based Raytheon, Maxtech says. Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus division also offers a night-vision system on its LX SUV.



Sales of infrared equipment direct to consumers remain limited, however, say Maxtech and dealers in the equipment such as Infrared Inc. of Reno, Nev.



At FLIR, which employs 200 people in Billerica, senior vice president Tony Trunzo said the company has explored automotive sales but doesn't think demand justifies the cost of production. "We think Raytheon is losing their shirt on every unit they're selling," he said.



Raytheon doesn't break out financial details but acknowledges it hasn't scored a major automotive hit so far. In 1999 Raytheon began equipping some high-end Cadillac DeVille models with infrared systems as a $2,250 option. (DeVille prices start at $45,745.) According to Cadillac, just 6.5 percent of model year 2003 DeVille DTS models were equipped with infrared, down from 17.8 percent in the 2000 model year.



Cadillac spokeswoman Kelly Cusinato attributed the decline partly to the systems' limited usefulness in urban areas. There may be other factors. The average DeVille owner is 67 years old, compared with 43 years old for the average Hummer H2 owner, General Motors says. Cusinato said Cadillac is still deciding whether to include the system in 2006 model year DeVilles.



Raytheon's Klapper said the Cadillac sales were still significant considering how little GM advertised the devices, adding the partnership with Hummer dealers announced in September is at least the next step. By 2008 automotive infrared might be as common as airbags, he said, adding that Raytheon is in talks with other automakers who might use them by the 2005 model year.



Hummer owners are likely to give the technology a boost, said Charles A. Sherwood II, a Naperville, Ill., Hummer driver who tried NightDriver at a club event in September. He said it would probably appeal to buyers who aren't likely to take their giant SUVs off-road. In an e-mail, he wrote: "Owning a Hummer is mostly for show, and the more gadgets, the better it shows."

Erick

[Erod]

Well it seems that nighvision will come as an option on the H2



Raytheon Seeks Deal to Install Night Vision System in Hummers
The Boston Globe

By Ross Kerber

November 18, 2003



Raytheon Co. says its NightDriver infrared system can spot a pedestrian on a darkened road up to a quarter-mile ahead, more than four times the distance of standard auto headlights.



The question is, can it pick out a willing buyer? Sales are dwindling from a four-year-old arrangement Raytheon struck with General Motors Corp. to install infrared sensors on Cadillacs, and the carmaker may drop the system from future models.



Now Raytheon believes it has a better customer base in its sights: owners of Hummers, the hulking SUVs derived from the military Humvee.



These people tend to be younger than Cadillac owners, wealthier, and drawn to gizmos - "early adopters," in marketing-speak.



Early signs suggest the infrared is locking on.



"It was one of those things that I wanted so badly," said Steve Chan, 42, a Santa Clara, Calif., engineering manager active in Hummer clubs. He says he pestered Raytheon managers to be the first to buy NightDriver after he saw it demonstrated at the South Bend, Ind., headquarters of AM General LLC, which manufactures some Hummers for GM.



Chan succeeded: In January he received the system, now mounted in front of the windshield of his Hummer H1, which has a list price of more than $100,000.



"It's really cool to have, like a DVD player inside the vehicle, or a GPS, whether you use it or not," said Chan, referring to the vehicle's global positioning system. Like many other Hummer owners he calls himself "a gadget person." He has set up a wireless network in his home to link the family's three laptops and he owns several low-light scopes, one of which he uses to hunt with a $30,000 sniper rifle.



Another owner of a NightDriver-equipped Hummer, Dave Reed of Austin, Texas, chats by ham radio with people in Jordan and other faraway lands.



He also has astronomy gear: solar-observation binoculars to track sun storms and an 18-inch reflecting telescope that he built himself to get a closer look at stars and galaxies. Others in the Hummer community have outfitted their trucks with satellite dishes to maintain high-speed Internet connections, or installed snorkels for water-crossings.



"A lot of the appeal is thinking about what's the latest gadget you can add," said Reed, a computer researcher at the University of Texas.



Said Stuart Klapper, executive director of transportation products at Raytheon's commercial infrared unit in Dallas, "There's a tendency that people who drive the H1 or H2 like all the cool new hardware."



At least they've got the resources to buy NightDriver, sold through Hummer dealers at prices starting under $4,000. The new Hummer H2, the smaller of the brand's two models, has a $49,190 list price, weighs 6,400 pounds, and gets about 12 miles per gallon. GM says the average Hummer owner makes more than $200,000 a year and often spends tens of thousands of dollars on extras.



"With accessories on Hummers, it's unlike any other car. People want everything" said Michael P. Gaughran, sales manager at Hummer Village of Norwood.



NightDriver hasn't reached Gaughran's dealership or others in New England yet, but in Durham, N.H., Manny MacMillan, director of the New England Hummer Owners Group, said he expects his members will be interested. "Some of our people really enjoy technology," he said.



NightDriver originated in the gear Raytheon sells for tasks like such as aiming tank cannons, but the Waltham-based company makes little of the military origins. Enthusiasts say few veterans can afford civilian Hummers anyway.



Infrared imaging distinguishes objects by the heat they emit, which is transmitted as energy with a longer wavelength than light in the visible spectrum. NightDriver includes a forward-looking camera and processing gear that feeds ghostly images to a screen mounted near the driver, like an extra rearview mirror.



NightDriver makes some objects visible at longer ranges than they can be seen in headlight beams, Raytheon says, up to 15 seconds ahead at 60 miles per hour compared with just 3.5 seconds for headlights only, in clear weather. People who have used NightDriver say it draws their eyes to the outlines of people, animals, and hot structures across a wide field of vision.



"If you see something that's hot, you recognize it as potentially something alive," said Reed, in Texas. He added the infrared device to his Hummer H1 to help avoid deer, and now notices many more of them along the roadside. Two weeks ago he also spotted children trick-or-treating on Halloween.



Most of the infrared industry works for military customers, but demand from commercial and local law-enforcement agencies makes up a $1 billion worldwide market that is growing at 15 percent a year, partly because of homeland-security spending, according to research firm Maxtech International Inc. of Fairfield, Conn. FLIR Systems Inc. of Portland, Ore., is the largest producer in nonmilitary markets, followed by Waltham-based Raytheon, Maxtech says. Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus division also offers a night-vision system on its LX SUV.



Sales of infrared equipment direct to consumers remain limited, however, say Maxtech and dealers in the equipment such as Infrared Inc. of Reno, Nev.



At FLIR, which employs 200 people in Billerica, senior vice president Tony Trunzo said the company has explored automotive sales but doesn't think demand justifies the cost of production. "We think Raytheon is losing their shirt on every unit they're selling," he said.



Raytheon doesn't break out financial details but acknowledges it hasn't scored a major automotive hit so far. In 1999 Raytheon began equipping some high-end Cadillac DeVille models with infrared systems as a $2,250 option. (DeVille prices start at $45,745.) According to Cadillac, just 6.5 percent of model year 2003 DeVille DTS models were equipped with infrared, down from 17.8 percent in the 2000 model year.



Cadillac spokeswoman Kelly Cusinato attributed the decline partly to the systems' limited usefulness in urban areas. There may be other factors. The average DeVille owner is 67 years old, compared with 43 years old for the average Hummer H2 owner, General Motors says. Cusinato said Cadillac is still deciding whether to include the system in 2006 model year DeVilles.



Raytheon's Klapper said the Cadillac sales were still significant considering how little GM advertised the devices, adding the partnership with Hummer dealers announced in September is at least the next step. By 2008 automotive infrared might be as common as airbags, he said, adding that Raytheon is in talks with other automakers who might use them by the 2005 model year.



Hummer owners are likely to give the technology a boost, said Charles A. Sherwood II, a Naperville, Ill., Hummer driver who tried NightDriver at a club event in September. He said it would probably appeal to buyers who aren't likely to take their giant SUVs off-road. In an e-mail, he wrote: "Owning a Hummer is mostly for show, and the more gadgets, the better it shows."

Erick

[Dan]

http://www.nightdriver.com/hummer.html

-------------------------------------------------
SUT on order 12/02. 11 months down, 7 to go!
-------------------------------------------------