Looking back, Looking ahead
As LightMetrics approaches an important milestone (we turn 2 next month!) and we brace ourselves for the exciting journey ahead, it is worthwhile taking a moment to look back.
Looking back, looking ahead
As LightMetrics approaches an important milestone (we turn 2 next month!) and we brace ourselves for the exciting journey ahead, it is worthwhile taking a moment to look back.
We, at LightMetrics, started by asking the following question – while the steady march towards autonomous driving is inevitable and irrevocable, is there a way to ease and assist the transition, by making vehicles on the road today safer, now? Seen in light of the frenzy of developments in the autonomous and connected driving space in the last 2 years, this question holds even more import.
Self-driving cars have become the hottest technology trend, and everyone – auto OEM’s, Silicon Valley giants and even startups – have thrown their hat into the ring. The estimates for when one can expect to see self-driving cars on roads vary, depending on who one asks. However, almost everyone agrees that considering regulatory compliance, maturity of sensor and AI technologies, and infrastructure overhaul, we are at least 5 years away from Level-5 automation, and many more years before it becomes mainstream. This leads to the realization that in the interim there are millions of vehicles (consumer and commercial) already on roads, that are being left out of the technological and safety benefits of the drive towards automation.
One of the things that stood out, even as we were taking our first baby steps towards creating our vision, was that every vehicle was a connected vehicle – even when the OEM did not make it so! This was driven by the ubiquity (at least in the western economies) of connected devices like smartphones, tablets, connected dashcams, OBD etc., in vehicles. We only had a vague idea at the time, that the solution lay in creating a platform that encompassed these devices, and helped drivers sense and react to their environment better.
Over the last 2 years, our vision and roadmap has come into focus. Today, as we stand on the cusp of an exciting next phase, we recognize that this is only the beginning, and we have a long road ahead. We are digging in deep, and taking inspiration from wherever we can – most recently, recognition came in the form of Frost & Sullivan naming LightMetrics among the top 20 startups disrupting the connected-truck market, globally! It’s a great honour to see our name alongside such path-breaking innovative companies, and it inspires us to achieve even loftier goals.
