tier-1-automotive
(2)
Phantom AI Stopped Chasing the Robotaxi - and Sold the Safety Layer Every Truck Was Missing
A bruising highway demo exposed the gap between autonomy theater and dependable safety. Phantom AI spent the next eight years making the less glamorous bet - affordable software that can see a pedestrian, fuse a radar return and help an ordinary vehicle stop.
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.