Ever been in your car and end up getting to your destination long after your navigation system said you would? John Heed has, and it inspired him to solve that problem by launching his own startup, RightThereWare.
The Ann Arbor-based company is creating a software platform that gives motorists more reliable and realistic estimated time of arrivals. The idea is to dissect the trip into smaller sections, giving firmer travel time estimates for each leg of the journey.
"Our technology chops the geography into equal surface areas," Heed says. "You can get more reliable ETAs that way."
And create more efficiency for the users, potentially creating double-digit performance improvements. Those gains played a significant role in RightThereWare winning the
Global Automotive Innovation Challenge at NextEnergy in Detroit last month.
RightThereWare's team of four people plans to take that win and use it to help it push for a public release of its platform early this fall. It is targeting companies with large fleets of vehicles, such as trucking companies.
"We can optimize in these platforms," Heed says. "We are in discussions with a number of fleet companies."
Source: John Heed, president of RightThereWare
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.