Vehicles that ‘feel’ the road promise safety and smart city advances

Nov 25, 2020

Tactile sensors and data can facilitate a step-change in vehicle safety and smart city insights, writes Megan Lampinen

Vision Zero is the gold standard to which many automakers, suppliers and transport departments aspire. Recent technological developments around connected and automated driving promise significant advances towards this end. Sensor technology, for instance, is helping vehicles to ‘see’ the road ahead, and in some cases even around corners. These visual sensors can warn a driver of coming obstacles or a tricky road layout. But what if a vehicle could ‘feel’ the road as well as see it?

Tactile Mobility, formerly MobiWize, offers just that. “The main technologies used today for advanced and even autonomous vehicles are vision-based,” says Eitan Grosbard, Vice President of Business Development at Tactile Mobility. “You have cameras, LiDAR and radar, but no one is tackling the sensing parts. There is a missing sense that today vehicles don’t have.”