automotive-sensors
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The car changes. The repair bill stays.
Standard Motor Products built a business on the parts drivers rarely think about. Its next act follows the sensors, switches, and cooling systems that survive the shift in how cars are powered.
Innoviz and the long wait to look away
A laser sensor helped BMW let drivers look away from the road. For Innoviz, the harder task is turning years of engineering into a business that can afford the wait.
Emisense Technologies
Emisense Technologies is a Ladera Ranch, California sensor company that builds PMTrac, an electrostatic particulate matter (ePM) sensor for measuring soot and ultrafine particles directly in the exhaust stream. Founded in 2009 by serial automotive-electronics entrepreneur Patrick Thompson, the company sells a low-cost, durable, in-situ alternative to lab-grade emissions instruments - aimed at automotive on-board diagnostics, generators, and industrial combustion. In 2025 it signed a global Tier-1 automotive supplier to industrialize the sensor, with serial production targeted for 2028.
Teradar
Teradar is a Boston deep-tech company building the first commercial sensor that sees using the terahertz band of the electromagnetic spectrum - the slice between microwave and infrared. Its solid-state Modular Terahertz Engine combines radar's ability to punch through rain, fog and snow with resolution approaching that of lidar, claiming up to 20x the detail of today's automotive radar with no moving parts. Founded in 2020 and out of stealth in November 2025 with a $150M Series B, Teradar is working with eight global automakers and Tier-1 suppliers and aims to put its sensor in a production vehicle by 2028.