November 17, 2015 - Mouser Electronics, Inc. has teamed up with celebrity engineer Grant Imahara and AVX Fellow, Ron Demcko to launch an Empowering Innovation Together™ program on Driverless Cars. In this interview, Grant and Ron explore the future of autonomous driving and vehicle gesture recognition. AVX is one of many leading companies and innovators in the new series driving innovation to make the dream of driverless and connected cars a reality.

The AVX Innovation Hub video, along with featured products and technical articles related to Driverless Cars, is available now on Mouser.com, the global authorized distributor with the newest semiconductors and electronic components. Viewers can take an inside look into the future of driverless and connected vehicles as seen through the visionary eyes of AVX - one of the biggest passive component suppliers in the world, and also a Diamond Sponsor of Mouser's Driverless Car Series.

In this latest video interview, Grant and Demcko discuss how the Human Machine Interface (HMI) and gesture recognition is dramatically changing the way we interact with vehicles. Eventually, this recognition will apply to autonomous vehicles by way of full driver recognition, where the car will recognize the state of the driver, such as whether they are drowsy or not, and offer support or assistance if they need it.

Other topics covered in the interview with AVX include safety sensors, alternative fuels, and how AVX is helping engineers and developers bring driverless cars to reality through components that offer greater reliability improvements, size reductions and harsh environment performance.

"Even though the term driverless car implies an 'active role' and set of components, that's not necessarily the case," said Grant Imahara. "There will be many instances where passive components will play a key role in autonomous vehicles, and may also help in saving lives. AVX, for example, has created components which, even if they were driven to failure, will still act as passive components thus allowing the module or part to still operate and keep the driver safe. It just goes to show how much technology, both passive, like this one, and active, like gesture recognition and safety alert systems, is needed to produce these intelligent vehicles."

Each interview throughout the Driverless Cars Series concentrates on different areas of autonomous and connected vehicle technology - from the history of driverless cars and the ethics of autonomous vehicles, to what discoveries and innovations are being made in the industry and what challenges are faced in gaining the public's approval of driverless and connected cars.

The Driverless Car Series, sponsored by Platinum Program Partner ON Semiconductor, and Diamond Sponsors Freescale Semiconductor, AVX and Delphi, is the fourth installment and follow-up to the popular Robotics, Space and Home Automation programs, which were launched earlier this year from Mouser Electronics.

It also includes accompanying articles, blogs, challenges and other related technical content. This exciting program is designed for professional and aspiring engineers.

To learn more about Grant Imahara, the Empowering Innovation Together™ program, visit www.mouser.com/empowering-innovation.

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