Bridging Underlying Gaps via Technology

Guident develops software solutions to enhance the safety, convenience, efficiency, and return on investment (ROI) of autonomous vehicles or delivery robots. Guident’s solutions are protected by eight patents and software code. Although autonomous vehicle adoption is growing rapidly, there will be mishaps, and in many instances, there won’t be vehicle operators present to help resolve these problems. 

The company’s first use case was way and an RMCC designed to monitor vehicles and, if necessary, provide additional support such as calling a first responder, taking control of the vehicle to move it out of harm’s way, and providing real-time communication with passengers or pedestrians.

Currently, no technology is believed to help vehicle manufacturers achieve true SAE level 5 autonomy. As a result, Guident reckons human-in-the-loop AI technologies will likely be required for the foreseeable future. Guident’s remote monitoring and control system provides the lowest glass-to-glass latency in the industry, achieving near real-time teleoperation. The company’s first use case will address the United States autonomous shuttle market and will also address several other industry sectors using autonomous vehicles, robots, or devices such as:

• Delivery
• Logistics
• Mining
• Agriculture and
• Hospitality 

Today, a critical path element is missing in the adoption of fully autonomous vehicles and delivery devices. The missing bridge between human-operated vehicles and AVs is the low latency, real-time monitoring, and control of such vehicles.  Guident with its teleoperation platform plans to help bridge the existing gap by the following means:

• Providing an economical alternative to human drivers in autonomous vehicles/shuttles and delivery devices
• Satisfying the legal requirement for backup, remote human monitoring is a barrier to entry for operators in a growing number of states

Guident’s initial deployable product is the Remote Monitor and Control Center (RMCC). Additionally, the company is developing a Regenerative Shock Absorber (RSA). The RSA continuously recovers the vehicle’s vibration energy that is otherwise dissipated and converts this wasted energy into DC power, generating additional energy for: 

• Recharging the vehicle battery to extend the vehicle’s range
• Provide energy to other vehicle components.

Essentially, this patented concept increases the range of electric and autonomous vehicles by up to 6-12 miles per charge, reducing the carbon footprint and making autonomous delivery devices more efficient.

Safer Autonomous Vehicles and Devices 

With its offerings, Guident envisions enabling safer autonomous vehicles and devices by providing industry-leading remote monitoring and assistance services. The company, meanwhile, aims to improve autonomous vehicle safety and adoption with its remote monitor and control services.

The offerings of the RMCC are completely aligned with the company’s mission and vision to make autonomous vehicles safer by providing a “human-in-the-loop” while operating an autonomous vehicle.  

Making Safety a Primary Concern

Guident makes autonomous vehicles safer by providing an additional safety layer for any use case applicable to SAE level 4 and level 5 autonomy and any type of autonomous robots or devices. The company’s ‘human-in-the-loop’ concept provides such an additional layer of safety. Moreover, its proprietary machine learning incident prediction and prevention algorithms will foresee possible issues and act before accidents or mishaps happen. “A patented, secure artificial intelligent algorithm with human-based vehicle monitoring and low-latency remote control rounds up the safety layers,” adds Harald Braun. 

Led by Telecommunications and Automotive Authorities

At the helm, Harald Braun leads Guident’s team as the Executive Chairman. Being a successful serial entrepreneur in the telecommunications industry, Harald has significant leadership experience and has previously led several global companies. Being a prominent standards influencer and spokesman in the telecommunications industry, he has been recognized as one of America’s “Top 100 Voices of the IP Communications Industry” by Internet Telephony magazine. He was also awarded the prestigious title of International Telecom CEO of the Year by IT & Telecom in Africa. He recently co-authored the book “Telecom Extreme Transformation,” which was rated one of the best new technology books of 2022. Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors at CLAdirect, ICN Communications Thailand, and Columbus Photovoltaics. He is also an Advisor to Forté Ventures in Silicon Valley. 

Speaking of spearheading the team, Harald says, he aims “To establish a high-power team with a competitive advantage in the industry requires a combination of mature, experienced business leaders with staff members, steeped with the latest technology skills.” Moreover, he is seeking to build a trustful and open-minded culture to facilitate learning and positive interactions. He also believes that allowing team members to make mistakes (failure-tolerant culture) and learning from mistakes is key to taking risks and earning rewards. “I believe we have built such a culture,” adds Harald. 

Customer Satisfaction is a Critical Roadmap to Success

Speaking of optimum customer satisfaction, Guident believes it is a critical element to the company’s success. Being a part of critical transportation deployments and infrastructure, safety and feedback in all forms are essential to Guident’s success. 

Guident’s roadmap is open for customer input but needs to be analyzed to see that those requirements are not ‘one-offs,’ meaning only for one customer and not scalable. With customer input and turning negative feedback into positive advances being a part of the company’s culture, Harald asserts that successful business has offered him many inputs on how a negative event can be the basis of a novel idea and a game-changer in business. 

Envisioning a Future Defined by Accelerating Growth

To date, Guident has successfully catered to the evolving market requirements of the autonomous vehicles industry with its unique offerings. The company strives to make a positive impact in the remote monitoring sector. According to Harald, the following are the top three goals that Guident will be focusing on:

1. Build on our initial success and develop unmatched SW features to increase the safety of autonomous vehicles and pave the way to a faster deployment of SAE level 4 autonomous vehicles even further. 

2. Increase the deployment of AV transportation solutions with teleoperation capabilities in urban and rural areas to significantly reduce the number of deaths caused by humans and CO2 emissions. 

3. Be a part of and contribute to the AV industry’s progress. Demonstrate to people that AVs can be safe with increased AV transportation services deployments.   

“Guident stands for safe and sustainable autonomous mobility with permanent availability.”