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Gentex's SmartBeam(R) High-Beam Assist Now Available on Lexus Flagship Luxury Sedan

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  Published in House and Home on Thursday, November 19th 2009 at 5:38 GMT by Market Wire
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ZEELAND, MI--(Marketwire - November 19, 2009) - Gentex Corporation (NASDAQ: [ GNTX ]), the Zeeland, Michigan-based manufacturer of automatic-dimming rearview mirrors and commercial fire protection products, announced that it is shipping interior and exterior auto-dimming mirrors and its SmartBeam® High-Beam Assist (called Intelligent High Beams by the automaker) for the 2010 Lexus LS. This is the first Lexus vehicle to offer SmartBeam in Europe and Japan and the first SmartBeam program offered in Japan.

An interior auto-dimming mirror is standard on all Lexus LS models. A compass, utilizing Gentex's proprietary Z-Nav® technology that uses a highly-accurate sensor designed to determine a vehicle's directional heading, is available on LS models without navigation. In many markets, the new LS offers driver- and passenger-side exterior auto-dimming mirrors to further help decrease headlamp glare of rearward-approaching vehicles.

SmartBeam High-Beam Headlamp Assist is standard on the 460L trim level in North America. In Japan and Europe, the feature is available on various trim levels including the 460, 460L, 600h and 600hL. SmartBeam uses a miniature camera-on-a-chip combined with algorithmic decision making to automatically turn a vehicle's high beams on and off according to surrounding traffic conditions. The system is designed to maximize a vehicle's forward lighting and to eliminate this repetitive and sometimes burdensome task.

"The LS program represents the first time that Lexus will offer SmartBeam on vehicle models in Japan and Europe," said Enoch Jen, Gentex Senior Vice President. "SmartBeam has become a popular feature as demonstrated by the more than a million of the imager systems in operation on vehicles throughout Europe and North America. We are hopeful that the LS program is the first of many Lexus and Toyota models to offer this feature to its global markets."

Founded in 1974, Gentex Corporation (NASDAQ: [ GNTX ]) is an international company that provides high-quality products to the worldwide automotive industry and North American fire protection market. Based in Zeeland, Michigan, the Company develops, manufactures and markets interior and exterior automatic-dimming automotive rearview mirrors that utilize proprietary electrochromic technology to dim in proportion to the amount of headlight glare from trailing vehicle headlamps. More than half of the Company's interior mirrors are sold with advanced electronic features, and more than 96 percent of the Company's revenues are derived from the sale of auto-dimming mirrors to nearly every major automaker in the world.