CES 2017: Cooperation to protect pedestrians from accidents

At CES 2017, taking place from January 5^th to January 8^th in Las Vegas, Nevada, Autotalks, a leader in automotive-grade V2X communication solutions, and RoyalTek, a leader in global positioning systems (GPS) and satellite navigation technology are announcing their cooperation.

The two companies joined forces to improve road safety by developing an innovative solution for vehicle to pedestrian (V2P) use-case. Vehicles equipped with Autotalks’ V2X chipset will be able to ‘talk to’ RoyalTek’s OMEN, also equipped with the chipset, using 5.9GHz WAVE/DSRC technology. The OMEN is designed as a phone case to be used by pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists and people with disabilities. The OMEN’s software is developed by ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute), a Taiwan based R&D organization that has been active in V2X software development since 2008. The OMEN awarded RoyalTek the CES 2017 Innovation Awards HONOREE in the Vehicle Intelligence product category.

This unique product, using Autotalks truly secure technology with multiple defense layers to protect against hackers, is enabling consumer-grade unsecure mobile phone to be part of a safety-critical network. It gives pedestrians road safety without compromising privacy, reliability or security.

In 2013, 4,735 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in the United States. Additionally, more than 150,000 pedestrians were treated in emergency departments for non-fatal crash-related injuries in 2013. Pedestrians are 1.5 times more likely than passenger vehicle occupants to be killed in a car crash on each trip. RoyalTek and Autotalks are both motivated to dramatically reduce these statistics with their collaboration.

“RoyalTek created OMEN to save pedestrian lives without compromising on the customer’s security and comfort,” explains RoyalTek’s President, Jacky Chen, “We offer an easy-to-use and carry, totally secure V2P solution. The high level of integration offered by Autotalks is the only viable solution for our product concept taking into consideration its superior security, size and power consumption.”

“Autotalks is proud to have such an important cooperation with RoyalTek,” said Hagai Zyss, CEO of Autotalks. “Autotalks’ entire vision is based on improving road safety and saving lives. This award winning innovative concept designed by RoyalTek to address the important V2P use-case, not only helps prevent accidents, but helps safeguard those who are most vulnerable, and this is of the highest importance to us.”