VNC Automotive celebrates Cobalt Cube’s first anniversary with the pioneering and powerful device making waves among emergency vehicle and fleet integrators. Installers across the globe are increasingly turning to Cobalt Cube to achieve the cost-effective integration of the myriad ancillary equipment that first responders need.
Cobalt Cube is unique within the industry, enabling the integration and control of light bars, sirens, ANPR, CCTV and many other features with a vehicle’s existing touchscreen. This significantly lowers the installation overhead, greatly reduces the total cost of ownership and, since the dashboard remains completely intact, increases the residual value once the vehicle reaches the end of its fleet life.
Since launch in July 2021, orders for the tiny-but-powerful Cobalt Cube have been coming in from multiple regions. It’s been popular in the USA and Canada, while trials are under way across forces in the UK and mainland Europe. Underlining this global interest, VNC Automotive has successfully trademarked Cobalt Cube in the UK, Europe and China, with trademarks pending in USA, Japan and Korea.
VNC Automotive CEO Tom Blackie says: ‘Last year we took a risk and launched our first hardware product, but the year or two prior to that we’d already made substantial inroads into the first response sector. In fact, we were gaining so much insight into how these emergency vehicles were used that it became clear we could make the lives of officers easier and, in many cases, safer. It made sense to house our proven software within a simple yet powerful dedicated box, thereby empowering first-response fleets to consolidate the many mission-critical systems they needed, and use the built-in touchscreen as the primary interface. As a result, Cobalt Cube was born.
‘That opened the door to more powerful features such as remotely displaying apps from smartphones, tablets and PCs on the vehicle’s touchscreen while they remain safely stowed out of the way,’ Tom continues. ‘But it also created real cost savings for installers looking to prepare emergency vehicles who, instead of requiring physical hardware to be mounted to the dashboard, appreciate that Cobalt Cube is effectively plug-and-play.’
Tom concludes: ‘As we all know, the best solutions are the simplest. The appetite for Cobalt Cube in its first year, across multiple industries and geographies, is a real testament to our engineering team’s ability to make the complex simple, secure and compelling.’
VNC is exhibiting its Cobalt Cube at the Emergency Services Show (www.emergencyuk.com) at the NEC Birmingham from 21 to 22 September on Stand D25.
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