A cloud-based vehicle-to-network (V2N) service that sends drivers near real-time alerts about road hazards and traffic conditions has been named Driver Safety Solution of the Year in the 2026 AutoTech Breakthrough Awards.
The service, Ready Aware, is developed by Harman, the automotive technology company that is a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics. Harman announced the award on 15 October and says it is the fourth consecutive year it has been honoured by AutoTech Breakthrough.
Ready Aware is designed to help drivers make informed decisions in challenging conditions and complex environments, where changing traffic patterns, signal timing, limited visibility and road hazards can make it difficult to anticipate what comes next.
“Almost a quarter of U.S. traffic deaths and roughly half of injuries are related to intersections. Cameras and sensors can be limited by physical occlusions and, on their own, may not have access to information about upcoming signal changes or other traffic conditions,” says Bryan Vaughn, managing director of AutoTech Breakthrough.
How the system works
Ready Aware is an end-to-end V2N software-as-a-service (SaaS) product that combines vehicle, road, traffic, weather and infrastructure data to deliver contextual in-vehicle alerts. It provides early warnings about road, traffic and weather conditions, and helps automakers support relevant European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) assessment criteria. Harman says it offers more than 15 connected safety use cases across road hazards, vehicle hazards and traffic light information.
Drivers can receive alerts for disabled vehicles, emergency hard braking ahead, slippery roads, lane closures, traffic signal changes and Green Light Optimised Speed Advisory (GLOSA). The system also supports vehicle-to-network-to-vehicle warnings, intended to help drivers navigate intersections and other complex situations.
At its core is a cloud analytics and scoring layer that fuses vehicle, infrastructure and third-party feeds with digital twins to create a near real-time view of the driving environment. The Ready Aware Confidence Engine reduces noise and false positives, assigns confidence scores to events and helps prioritise the most relevant alerts, to limit distraction and alert fatigue.
“Ready Aware’s software-defined model connects the intelligence already present in cities and connected vehicles, then delivers it to the driver as a timely, contextual alert,” says Vaughn. “Ready Aware turns infrastructure data, vehicle telemetry and cloud analytics into actionable driver awareness—available today, scalable tomorrow, and quickly deployable.”
Integration with existing hardware
Ready Aware is designed to complement existing advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), navigation and connected services. It provides non-line-of-sight situational awareness through pre-integrated data application programming interfaces (APIs), without additional sensors or connectivity hardware.
Automakers can use their existing 4G and 5G investments and deploy the cloud instance in their preferred original equipment manufacturer (OEM) cloud environment. Client-to-cloud or cloud-to-cloud integration supports paid connected experiences, and OEMs retain control over monetisation.
Because the system works with existing vehicle connectivity hardware and cloud infrastructure, new connected safety features can be deployed throughout a vehicle’s life without hardware upgrades. Harman says this can lower deployment costs, support subscription-based connected services and enable continuous safety improvements through software updates.
“Ready Aware gives automakers a flexible way to move connected vehicle safety from reactive intervention to proactive awareness,” says Suman Sehra, global head of connectivity product and portfolio management at Harman. “By transforming real-time road intelligence into timely, contextual alerts, Ready Aware helps drivers anticipate hazards before they come into view while giving automakers a scalable foundation to continuously enhance safety through software.”
Sehra adds: “This recognition reflects Harman’s vision for safer, more informed mobility.”
About the awards
The AutoTech Breakthrough Awards, part of Tech Breakthrough, recognise automotive and transportation technology across categories including connected car, electric vehicles, engine tech, automotive cybersecurity, sensor technology, traffic tech and vehicle telematics. Tech Breakthrough states that its recognition consists of the opinions of the organisation and should not be construed as statements of fact, and that it does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its recognition programmes.
