Skip to main content

Plug-and-play anti-collision technologies for everyone

With an eye on the autonomous vehicle market, Soterea, a new high-tech firm in New Jersey, US, is developing plug-and-play anti-collision technologies that can make new and used vehicles safer, thereby helping to further evolve the critical element necessary to make driverless vehicles commercially viable. Soterea is the brainchild of two transportation technology experts, Eva Lerner-Lam and Alain L Kornhauser, each with more than four decades of experience in developing next generation technologies for
March 6, 2014 Read time: 3 mins
With an eye on the autonomous vehicle market, Soterea, a new high-tech firm in New Jersey, US, is developing plug-and-play anti-collision technologies that can make new and used vehicles safer, thereby helping to further evolve the critical element necessary to make driverless vehicles commercially viable.

Soterea is the brainchild of two transportation technology experts, Eva Lerner-Lam and Alain L Kornhauser, each with more than four decades of experience in developing next generation technologies for transportation systems. The two have now teamed up to provide individual vehicle owners and fleet operators in the US and abroad with key technologies needed to make almost all vehicles, not just new, expensive ones, safer.

“Today’s vehicle crash warning and active prevention technologies are available as premium features on top-of-the-line, new vehicles,” says Lerner-Lam. “We’re developing affordable, “plug-and-play” kits for virtually all vehicles, even those that did not come with anti-collision systems installed at the factory.”

Soterea is integrating state-of-the-art technologies from around the world for the kits and exploring unique partnerships with technology institutes, insurance companies, auto dealers, auto service centres and fleet operators for distributing them globally.

“Crash mitigation and avoidance technologies are evolving at breakneck speed, far faster than a typical car owner’s new or used car purchase cycle,” says Kornhauser. “With in-vehicle wireless communications and electronic steering, braking and throttle controls on almost all new vehicles made since 2012, there’s no reason why warning and prevention devices can’t be installed and updated on virtually any vehicle on an after-market basis, significantly enhancing the overall safety of our streets and highways—for everyone.”

Beyond the immediate application of anti-collision technology today for everyone, the promise of self-driving cars has captured the imagination of urban planners, transportation industry professionals and ordinary citizens. “But,” says Lerner Lam, “Self-driving vehicles won’t happen until they can demonstrate that they can be trusted to avoid collisions. We have to achieve safer driving vehicles in order to achieve self-driving ones.”

“It’s an exciting time for everyone who needs or provides transportation,” adds Kornhauser. “Self-driving technology can provide a professional driver's response when the human behind the wheel is drowsy or distracted, thus benefiting everyone on the road. Getting anti-collision technologies onto new and used vehicles is the first step in this transportation revolution. The rest will be history.”

Related Content

  • December 6, 2012
    Debating the future of in-vehicle systems
    Industry experts talk to Jason Barnes about the legislative situation of current and future in-vehicle systems. Articles about technology development can have a tendency to reference Moore’s Law with almost indecent regularity and haste but the fact remains that despite predictions of slow-down or plateauing, the pace remains unrelenting. That juxtaposes with a common tendency within the ITS industry: to concentrate on the technology and assume that much else – legislation, business cases and so on – will m
  • November 12, 2015
    Driver aids make inroads on improving safety
    In-vehicle anti-collision systems continue to evolve and could eliminate some incidents altogether. John Kendall rounds up the current developments. A few weeks ago, I watched a driver reverse a car from a parking bay at right angles to the road, straight into a car driving along the road. The accident happened at walking pace, no-one was hurt and both cars had body panels that regain their shape after a low speed shunt.
  • April 1, 2019
    Swarco: ‘Everyone’s running after buzzwords’
    The ITS world finds itself in a time of great change. Swarco’s Michael Schuch talks to Adam Hill about connectivity, the increasing importance of the end user – and why you shouldn’t leave your core business behind
  • March 3, 2022
    Lidar: eyes wide open
    Lidar is on the cusp of becoming an indispensable part of transportation infrastructure worldwide. Itai Dadon of Ouster takes a high-level overview of the technology and its applications in ITS