May 8, 2019—Drivent announced it is certified to test autonomous vehicles in the state of Washington and unveiled essential technologies for autonomous vehicles.
Eric Wengreen, who is a Stanford graduate and Drivent co-founder, said in a statement, "Years ago, we realized that encouraging widespread adoption of self-driving vehicles would require more than just making cars that don't crash. While the autonomous industry focused on collision-avoidance technology, we focused on developing technology to overcome the non-collision barriers to adoption of autonomous vehicles."
There are reportedly approximately 168,000 vehicle fires per year in the U.S. Without the necessary technology to detect and respond to a fire in an autonomous vehicle, the vehicle would continue driving while passengers are injured by the fire. Drivent's proprietary technologies detect a fire in an autonomous vehicle and then cause the autonomous vehicle to automatically pull over to allow passengers to exit the vehicle.
Drivent's proprietary technologies facilitate interactions with police officers and others by enabling a vehicle representative, located at a centralized call center, to speak with police officers, tow-truck operators, and other people outside the vehicle as situations require.