EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: HAAS Alert CEO Cory Hohs said a digital siren service offered by his company is a first step in delivering the kind of data needed to make autonomous cars a reality.

Speaking at Mobile World Congress Americas last month, Hohs explained HAAS Alert currently offers a service which warns drivers when emergency vehicles are headed their way via a connected in-dash display. While Hohs acknowledged what his company does is relatively simple, he argued sharing such environmental information will be the foundation for autonomous cars to function.

“We’re not necessarily solving this massive technology problem. What we’re actually doing is…solving a very simple data problem. I think for the future autonomous [world] it’s going to become more and more a method to solve some of the problems we see,” he said.

“For autonomous I think the more problems you can solve just with data rather than having to install actual hardware onto vehicles, all the better,” he continued: “So that’s why we see the future of autonomous needing to know these events much further ahead of time so that the car knows rather than the driver.”

For more from Hohs on the technology HAAS is using to deliver its alerts, as well as progress in the UK, click here.