The End of Parking As We Know It with Anuja Sonalker CEO STEER Tech
Women Driving the Future: Anuja Sonalker CEO Steer Tech
A lot of people love to drive, but most of us aren’t as fanatic about that last step of the driving experience. The one that requires operating your vehicle at a snail’s pace while you anxiously stalk drivers and pedestrians, attempting to swoop in if any of them approach the driver’s side door or tap their brake lights. Yep, today we’re here to talk about parking. Well, we’re actually talking about NOT parking
In the first episode of the Women Driving the Future series, join Ed Bernardon, host of the Future Car Podcast, and Anuja Sonalker, the CEO of STEER Tech. Her company has created a technology that solves a big problem, a problem that qualifies as one of the greatest “pet peeves” of city dwellers and anyone else who’s ever sat behind the wheel of a car. If we can land people on the moon and accurately detect our percentage of neanderthal DNA, isn’t it about time we figured out a better way to manage parking?
In today’s episode, you’ll learn about Anuja’s interesting professional background, and how it eventually led her to founding STEER. Buckle your seat belts and listen in as we talk about a parking technology that could save you time, frustration, and one day eliminate parking from your life forever.
Some Questions I Ask:
- What were you doing before starting STEER? (2:57)
- How did you transition from cybersecurity to autonomous parking (5:55)
- How does your autonomous parking system work? (9:26)
- What parking options can the system handle? (11:23)
- What are some of the partnerships you’ve created? (14:45)
- What can this technology do for communities? (19:36)
- How do you test your systems? (32:09)
- What’s next for STEER? (35:05)
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- An action movie worthy incident that demonstrated the vulnerabilities of technology (4:12)
- How minimalist engineering helped Anuja recognize that retro-fitting was possible (6:40)
- How much time you’re really giving up just in order to park your car (12:56)
- How the nature of parking will change in the future (16:14)
- How this technology can be applied to existing vehicles (22:12)
- Why shuttles aren’t the answer (35:49)
- When you can get your hands on this autonomous technology (39:35)
Anuja Sonalker, CEO STEER Tech – Guest
Anuja Sonalker is founder and CEO of STEER Tech. which develops secure automated vehicle technologies to enable situationally aware and robust cybersecure automated driving applications. Dr. Sonalker draws two decades of experience from both the automotive industry and US cybersecurity defense sector. Prior to STEER, Dr. Sonalker headed the Automotive Security Group at Battelle where she led advanced security research in vehicular environments and transitioned several patented automotive technologies and practices to market. During her career, Dr. Sonalker has had a unique vantage point building and transitioning technology, engaging commercial stakeholders, government agencies and policymakers. Dr. Sonalker also serves on the Board of Visitors for the Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland, and the Board of Directors of the Economic Development Authority of Howard County, Maryland. She holds a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland College Park.
Ed Bernardon, Vice President Strategic Automotive Initiatives – Host
Ed is currently VP Strategic Automotive Initiatives at Siemens Digital Industries Software. Responsibilities include strategic planning and business development in areas of design of autonomous/connected vehicles, lightweight automotive structures and interiors. He is also responsible for Future Car thought leadership which includes hosting the Future Car Podcast and development of cross divisional projects. Previously he was a founding member of VISTAGY that developed light-weight structure and automotive interior design software acquired by Siemens in 2011, he previously directed the Automation and Design Technology Group at MIT Draper Laboratory. Ed holds an M.S. in mechanical engineering from MIT, B.S. in mechanical engineering from Purdue, and MBA from Butler.
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On the Move: A Siemens Automotive Podcast
The automotive and transportation industries are in the middle of a transformation in how vehicles are designed, made, and sold. Driven by an influx of new technologies, consumer demands, environmental pressures, and a changing workforce in factories and offices, automotive companies are pushing to reinvent fundamental aspects of their businesses. This includes developing more advanced and capable vehicles, identifying new revenue sources, improving customer experiences, and changing the ways in which features and functionality are built into vehicles.
Welcome to On the Move, a podcast from Siemens Digital Industries Software that will dive into the acceleration of mobility innovation amid unprecedented change in the automotive and transportation industries. Join hosts Nand Kochhar, VP of Automotive and Transportation, and Conor Peick, Automotive and Transportation Writer, as they dive into the shifting automotive landscape with expert guests from Siemens and around the industry. Tune in to learn about modern automotive design and engineering challenges, how software and electronics have grown in use and importance, and where the industries might be heading in the future.
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