Engineering company’s mission a worthy effort

It’s the nature of companies to aggressively pursue business opportunities because doing so impacts their profitability and growth. But when that opportunity also has the benefit of increasing the safety of people, that’s special.

LHP Engineering Solutions is pursuing such an opportunity.

The Columbus-based company, which is expanding in the Midwest and West, wants to work with companies that are heavily involved in autonomous vehicle technology — which is key to self-driving cars. One reason this is, is because LHP is already heavily involved with embedded control systems and telematics, which are part of autonomous vehicle technology.

An embedded system is a special-purpose computer that is encapsulated by the device it controls. Embedded systems are found in motor vehicles, farm machinery and medical devices, for example. A telematic system collects and transmits data about real-time performance, such as the fuel economy of an engine.

However, it’s a personal reason and not simply profit that is driving LHP to make this a cause — and quickly.

The company wants to prevent the type of auto accident in which Columbus North High School basketball standout Josh Speidel was involved. On Feb. 1, Speidel attempted to drive across U.S. 31 near Taylorsville but never saw an oncoming car. Speidel suffered serious head and other bodily injuries in the accident and has had to relearn how to walk and talk.

David Glass, the CEO and co-founder of LHP, coached Speidel in youth baseball, and his son is a friend and former baseball and basketball teammate of Speidel’s.

“For me, it’s a personal mission, and I’d like to make it for the company,” Glass said.

Current and future technology can make cars aware of one another and take action — such as automatically braking — to prevent these types of accidents, Glass said.

LHP is to be commended for making it a goal to help prevent future auto accidents by applying its expertise in some areas to technology that can be applied broadly to vehicles used by many drivers.

Any lives saved as a result are worth the investment of time, talent and resources.