In Los Angeles, the joke is that everyone and their mother has a script they’d like to sell. In Silicon Valley, the joke could be that everybody has an idea for an app. PC and mobile users are bombarded daily with offers to download yet another one. It’s not hard to see why some startups may prefer to take a detour and work their way into the market by piggybacking on others who are already there.

Cory Hohs, founder and CEO of Humboldt Park startup HAAS Inc., is one tech innovator who took an unconventional route to market. At this week’s North American International Auto Show he told Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, about the divergent path for his company’s creation of a mobile platform alerting drivers to emergency vehicles on the road.

“The idea isn’t, ‘Oh, have a separate mobile app, and we have to wait for the whole world to download the app,'” Hohs said. Instead, he explained that the HAAS Alert integrates with the in-dash infotainment systems on the vehicles, mapping providers already in use and traffic data suppliers.

“We enable drivers to be alerted of emergency vehicles, utility trucks, school buses, all these things that aren’t on the grid yet. And we make that data available to automotive manufacturers, traffic data suppliers, and other vehicle components,” he explained.

Riding the existing-technology gravy train

Hohs said that working with mobile infrastructure that is already there has accelerated the company’s success and allows the technology to work all over the world and to be platform agnostic.

“Leveraging those things that are there, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel or wait for advancements in automotive; you can use these technologies that already exist,” he said.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the North American International Auto Show.

Photo by SiliconANGLE