Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
In this world of technology, things that ever changing, rearranging.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
You need someone to help you out.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
I know someone that.
Speaker 4 (00:08):
Can be alone.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
You'll be with Paul.
Speaker 4 (00:11):
I'm a days lane in the Tech Zone.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hey everybody, welcome back to the Tech Zone. I hope
you enjoyed my chat with.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
George, Verizon's gadget guy.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
We got a great look at the Gizmo smart watch
street and all the cool things Verizon is doing in.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
The world of tech.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
And also we never want to forget what the Verizon
is doing here in California to help victims of the
wildfires that are that are going on now. For those
of you just joining us, we kicked off today's show
talking about my awesome experience at CES twenty twenty five.
I made moderated a panel with some incredible tech leaders
(00:59):
and even scored an invite to a couple of VIP dinners.
But one of the highlights definitely was connecting with my
next guest. As a person with a disability, a quadriplegic
and empower you will chair use it myself. Personal mobility
(01:20):
is something that I'm incredibly passionate about. It's literally changed
my life, giving me freedom and independence and That's why
I'm so excited to introduce to you Tony Hank, the
founder and CEO of Strut. They're developing groundbreaking technology that's
going to revolutionize how people get around. So I am
(01:44):
so delighted to welcome him on the show. Right now,
I am so delighted to have me right now here
at CEES twenty twenty five, they have doctor Tony Hong,
CEO and founder of Strutt.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
What's going on, Tony? How are you?
Speaker 4 (02:02):
I'm good, My pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Hey, it's an honor I speak to you to tell
me how's your CEES going?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
The CES has been wonderful. We are just getting started.
Many people are coming to our booths and it's really
exciting for us to be here.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Now. Is this your first time exhibiting sees?
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Yes, this is the first time.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
So what was it like, you know, getting ready to
come here and and be a part of this amazing experience.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Oh, we did the last work, lost of preparations, ship
like continents of stuff to support our booths. But most excitingly,
I think it's it's our pleasure to showcase the technology
we want to bring to the world. So our product
is called EVU won't. It's really exciting product I'm going
(02:48):
to share with you.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
And you know I called CEES it kind of like
the super Bowl of technologies exactly. Yeah, you know, and
and and where what's your company?
Speaker 4 (02:59):
Look, we are a Singapore tech company.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Well Singapore song. So how was the flight over here?
Speaker 4 (03:05):
It's good? Yeah, my first time being Las Vegas. So
it's also a great, great trip here.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Nice you get a chance you go see some of
the Las Vegas sites or you just kind of focused
in on ceas.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Kind of both. Yeah, we did both.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
I love it. I love it.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Well, well, Tony, you know, let's talk about your innovation
and what made you want to create this innovation in
the first place, and why take the lead to come
here to the super Bowl technology and show it off
to all of us.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
Yeah, I can probably start from my background. I'm actually
in tech background. I did my PhD in physics from
UC Berkeley. So then I worked for a couple of
technology companies doing the most fancy stuff like things outside
the towns, driving and so on. And then I realized,
(03:53):
you know, these technology are really good for the future,
but what about now? And I mean that brings me
to my thinking, like what exactly you want to do
with technology? So I was growing up in a family
of an engineering father and a nursing mother, so kind
(04:13):
of mixture between like you know, engineering stuff and taking
care of people. So then I really wanted to tackle
the challenge of like, you know, putting technology together with humanity, Like,
so what exactly can we do? So I think this
is a really good opportunity for me to put what
I learned and what I experienced to what can be
(04:36):
addressed like in the today's society. So that brings us
to look at some of the challenges here, especially you know,
the aging population that disabled people. Then like what we
can bring from the autonomous driving technology to people who has,
for example, mobility issues or like anything that they need
(04:57):
in their life. So that brings us to create something
that we want to really help them. Visa the technology
not in the future but today.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
I totally get it.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
And as a member of the disabled community myself, I
would say thank you for tackling this assistive and adaptive
technology that we so desperately need. And that's one thing
that I noticed here at CEES. I've been covering CEES
and broadcasting here since two thousand and eight. I remember
when we didn't talk about assistive and adaptive technology, and
(05:28):
now we're talking about it. We're exhibiting some pretty amazing
innovation like yours. And how does it feel now that
the world and tech in general are embracing this type
of technology.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
Yeah, I think people are generally more familiar with you know, autonomus,
driving technologies like us an obstacle of euidence, trajectory planning.
So I think all those technologies used to be in
like terminologies for the future, but now people are getting
you know, like ma famnia and wanting to help people
(06:04):
with those kind of technologies. So I think this is good.
This is a good time that some of the you know,
components are getting cheaper and some of the people are
already getting familiar with the concept, and there are more
people indeed, So yeah, I think this is like people
are getting excited about of this tony.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
One thing that I like about it is lighter technology.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
I remember covering light our technology and ontonomous vehicles, and
I always thought, you know, I'm not gonna credit myself
for thinking this up, because smart guys like you have
done it yourself. But to use the same type of
technology and assistive and adaptive technology is for those and
the aging adult population, the disabled community. And to see
(06:49):
it now, Tony, I am just so so blown away
by what has been the reception from the tech world
as far as this type of inn.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
I think this has been progressing dramatically over the past
few years. Uh, it's really great to see the lighter
sensors has been used in many of the applications. In fact,
I was like one of the working for one of
the most important lighter manufacturer.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
I think the technology is evolving, but I think most
at this moment, most people are just building it for
for cars. So I think the way we we envision
it like we want to have purpose built technology that
would suit a mobidity device. Just like you said, the
lighter has been like fascinating, but they are expensive. The
(07:45):
performance is you know, overkill for most of these low
speed applications. So that's what we do. We try to,
you know, work with our partners to design the lighters
that work specific for the mobility products. At those speeds
you don't really need to look at for example, two
hundred meters away, you don't really want to see, you know,
(08:09):
like a petssion two hundred meters away, a dog two
hundred meters away, So what we need is like twenty meters,
but we do need to be accurate about, for example,
what the table is, what the chair is, so that
kind of thing. You know. This there is a rebalance
of the focusing area from the techno knowledge itself. So
(08:30):
this is what we mean by purposely build technology, so
especially suit for the applications we are building for. So
I think that is also keeping us keeping us competitive
because we're not just buying you know, expensive lighters off
the shelf. Yeah, so this we hope that could keep
the cost competitive and people could be able to afford it.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
That's so true and totally. I only want to bring
us up because this has been the topic of conversation curiously. Yes,
and that's the that's the potential of what tariffs will
do to innovation in general, and also just innovators like
yourself bringing technology over to us here in the United States.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
What kind of impact would that have on just your.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
Vision and also just where we're at in your timeline
of wanting to introduce this over to us here in
the States.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Yeah, so we are right now only building these minimum
viable products. So I think one of the philosophy we
have is we want to put our users in the center,
So we just don't want to you know, build something
for them and then think they may use it. So
one of the important reasons we want to show his
at the CS is to showcase we have this technology
(09:48):
and to come become our test users and give us feedbacks.
So we we have this concept of like code designing
and co develop with our audience so that this is
usually some thing pete for them. It's so so that
roughly like take some time, like we envision it to
take half a year to a year k so then
(10:09):
our mass production was kicked saying once we have everything finalized,
that our users love it and then we will start
to manufacture and ship it. So yeah, I think this
is like a really good time for us to be
excited about the technology itself while the product side, there
are still a lot of things for us to you
know finalizing.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Okay, good to know.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
So if potential tariffs were to happen, they wouldn't impact
you at this point in time because we're still in
the R and D phase, in the testing phase, and
that if when that time comes to put it out
to mass production. Maybe there's some political wins that can
change where that won't even be an issue.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
Exactly, gotcha, got you.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Appreciate you sharing that because that has been the hottest
topic here with tech right now, and it's just been
you know, in the tech world where we're kind of
scared about about what may happen. So Tony talk about
cod design and testing because not only as journalists, but
I am an accessibility consultant. I've code designed with PlayStation,
I've code designed with Meta, I've cod designed with Google.
(11:11):
And I love the fact that we're seeing more of
this now in innovation because you have to make sure
that you not only are building for us, but working
with us to make sure that your innovation will work
for us.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Talk about why that was so important.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
Yeah, So, as I mentioned, like, we started this company
with the vision of combining technology and the humanity. So
we don't really want to be like a bunch of
tech enthusiasts do something like really cool, but then eventually
that product doesn't really fit most of the people. So
that's why we honor it. Actually, very at the very
beginning of our development phase, we have interviewed like more
(11:53):
than one hundred people asking them what are the problems
they have in every day life and what could be
have been solved and would what have not been solved?
So those kinds of questions give us a very good
understanding of what our product could help them. For example,
let me show you example, so if you want, it
(12:14):
has riders, it has all these advanced technology. So like
a lot of people just ask us, as would this
be like autonomous driving by itself? So I think that's
a really good question because people would just think about that.
But I think at this moment we after intervene so
many people. A lot of people just don't like the
(12:35):
feeling of losing control. So if something is really autonomous driving,
like in all kinds of situations, this is something that
you cannot make instant in instant decisions. You cannot control
the wheel, show the vehicle that you are driving, while
you can only for example, said that a lot from
A to B. That's not something like most people want.
(12:57):
So like taking that feedback with this copilot system which
is like a driver says system instead of autonomous system.
But the automa system be useful, yes, And a lot
of people are asking us could you could it be
like a self charging itself because they always forgot to
(13:18):
charge it and then the next day they will not
be able to use it. So yeah, that's something that
we can welcome because this technologynology is fully capable of
doing all those kinds of things. But yeah, for the
first thing, first first feature, we just want to raw
out the copilot as the products so because like that
would help people be safer, be like easier, much easier
(13:40):
to use those devices. So yeah, I think that's the
purpose and we we we are going to achieve.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
That's incredible, you know, I love that co pilot says,
that's amazing. And then the fact that you are thinking
not only the first iteration, but second and third iteration
is very forward thinking. That's the way we can stay
at the head of the curve when it comes to
AI if we're always thinking about the future and how
we can we can catch up with that.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
So that that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
So where can once find out more information about strut
right now?
Speaker 3 (14:15):
After cees? Now, we have a.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Website it's three w dot strut dot Inc. So we
have almost all the information there and we have some
social medias and so on. That people will find the
information about us.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Now, another thing I wanted to ask you, Tony, are
you looking for testers even here in the United States
or just throughout.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
The world or yeah, yeah, we we are looking for
testers throughout the world, but we as we are launching
it in the US as well, so we so after
the CS, we immediately we'll go to some of the
users and test test drive with them. We also have
a program it's called a strut Dry Driver Club, which
is a program we start to invite users to join
(15:00):
and then we would plan some schedules and then we
will see the feedback. I think this is the first
passion we will continue roading out these kinds of activities.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
That's awesome.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Is there anything else you'd like to share with us
about your CES experience or just Streut in general?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
The floor is yours.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
Yeah, I think this is a really great experience to
showcase our technology here that we are very excited and
we are also very excited about our product and the future.
So yeah, I guess for everyone interested, feel free to
contact us and join our struct Driver Club so that
we will have a better suit and a better development
(15:39):
with them.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, thank you, awesome, Tony. Great talking with you to
enjoy the rest of your CEES.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
That was fantastic, Tony, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
It was great meeting you at CES twenty twenty five
and sharing your vision for the future of personal mobility.
The strut Evy one is an incredible device and I
can't wait to see it out in the world, really
changing lives. And a huge shout out to my man
JB for making that interview a reality. It was a
(16:14):
great finding meeting you face to face at CES. It's
amazing to see how innovation is exploding in the field
of personal mobility. When I first met Tony at CES,
I was blown away by Strut's commitment to creating technology
that really empowers people.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
And that's what the Tech Zone.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Is all about.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
Whether you have a disability or not, it's all about
using tech. We're all connected. A huge thank you to
all of you for tuning in and being part of
this conversation. Hope you enjoyed the show. I'm already looking
forward to our next episode. We will dive into even
more exciting tech and I look back and see Yes
(17:02):
twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Don't forget to stay to connect with me.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
All social media platforms, Paul ama Day's Lane at my website,
Paulamaday's lane dot com.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
And as always getting choked up a little bit and
as always.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Everyone stay healthy, stay safe and remember I love you
all the life. In this world of technology, things are
ever changing, rearranging.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
You need someone to help you out. I need someone
that can be alone.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
You'll be with Paul.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
I'm gonna days lane in the tech Zone.