The Chicago-based startup, HAAS Alert – which stands for “Heedful Audio Alert System”- has been working on a mobile platform for connected cars and smart cities that allows first responders and other municipal departments to send notifications to nearby drivers about road conditions and driver-safety issues such as accidents, emergency vehicles in transit, or first responders on the scene. The technology can also reroute traffic accordingly using navigation apps.
The alert system sends automatic push notifications and an audible alert to drivers and cyclists through a car stereo or headphones. First responders are either outfitted with a device or are onboarded to a mobile device platform, which then uses sensors to monitor the siren, speed, bearing, and other data sets from the device. Then, that data is sent to nearby motorists as an emergency vehicle speeds to the scene. The radius of the alert and sensor parameters are customizable by city because there would be a different alert radius for Chicago versus a rural area. They’re looking to expand their data set to include municipality workers, cable companies and construction workers alerting drivers to a variety of roadway interrupters that could cause traffic delays or danger.
Cory Hohs, CEO and co-founder of HAAS Alert says because HAAS Alert is currently using existing mobile networks, it can transmit alerts to drivers from greater distances than short-range vehicle sensors. The company currently has pilots running in more than ten cities, including Detroit, Chicago, and Palo Alto. Haas Alert will work with the Jaguar Land Rover Tech Incubator in Portland, Oregon for the first six months of 2017.
In a recent press release, Jaguar stated that increasing driver and passenger safety is one of their highest priorities and that working with HAAS Alert gives them the opportunity to explore potential links between connected cars and safety, and investigate news ways of keeping drivers better informed when on the road.
