When Brett Harrison was deployed in Afghanistan a decade ago, he experienced how hazardous it can be to lose a GPS signal, whether because of dead spots in city settings, losing connections in the mountains or by signal jamming.
"As we were inserting into certain target areas, we would lose GPS at the worst times, and when your life is on the line, if you will, and you're in territory that's relatively dangerous, that's not something that resonates well," he said.
That experience set him on a path that eventually led to co-founding Austin navigational technology startup Tern AI.
Tern AI's system combines data from existing comprehensive maps and motion sensors in phones and vehicles to triangulate positions globally without using satellites. Its patented AI crunches that into real-time location information that's accurate up to about four meters. The company has trademarked its tech as IDPS, which stands for independently derived positioning system.
The goal isn't to replace Google Maps, Waze or other GPS-based systems. Instead, it's to provide mapping companies and vehicle manufacturers with its alternative data that isn't reliant on satellite systems, which can be vulnerable to attacks and jamming techniques, as well as solar storms that can knock out satellites in low Earth orbit.
The company's technology can be loaded onto a smart phone or a vehicle's infotainment system with a software patch. Its founders hope to have the technology in every vehicle in the years to come, in addition to potential defense applications.
"So it's a big problem, and in our estimation, it all boils down to that signal," Harrison said. "And so when we saw the problem, we wanted to eliminate all those vulnerabilities. And it's never been done before."
When the startup set out to solve the problem in 2014, AI was too immature to process the type of data needed. Flash forward half a decade and AI has evolved exponentially. Harrison connected with company CEO Shaun Moore, who had founded facial recognition startup Trueface, which was acquired by security and travel services company Pangiam in 2021.
Tern AI is now starting to reach out to potential partners in mapping, vehicles and emergency services. It also has started a pilot project with a logistics and shipping company that it hasn't named.
This week, the young company locked down a $4.4 million round of seed funding. The money is coming from Austin-based venture capital firm Scout Ventures, as well as Shadow Capital, Bravo Victor VC and Veteran Fund, which also back technologies with applications in the commercial and defense sectors.
The startup currently has eight employees who operate mostly remotely. Three, including Harrison, are in Austin.
In the next one to three years, Tern AI plans to expand its team and set up an office in Austin.
"We've been, I would say, very particular with the type of people that we want, type of skill sets, and, ultimately, we need to find the right team to do this so that culture that we've developed and the technical talent is there," Moore said. "We just have to find it."
One of its biggest hurdles for now is creating awareness around the vulnerability of GPS.
"If business owners were to take a step back and look at how reliant they are upon such a flawed system, a lot of groups would likely want to start removing that liability," Moore said. "And some are right now ... Creating some of that awareness and getting ahead of the problems, instead of allowing it to be reactionary, in case something does happen, is part of what drives us."
