CHICAGO & NORTHVILLE, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 2025--
HAAS Alert, a company with the largest commercially deployed vehicle-to-everything (V2X) safety network powered by its Safety Cloud digital alerting platform, and Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America, Inc. (“MEAA”), a consistently dependable supplier that creates high-quality in-car systems for major OEMs around the world, are thrilled to announce their collaboration on a strategic partnership that will lead the way in the next generation of in-vehicle experience.
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MEAA announced its latest in-cabin monitoring system, FLEXConnect™, at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), showcasing its ability to leverage real-time vehicle data to enhance driver safety and personalization. FLEXConnect™ now integrates with Safety Cloud to provide an extra level of protection for drivers using MEAA in-vehicle monitoring systems.
“Safety is at the core of FLEXConnect™,” said Mohammad Horani, Director of Advanced Development at MEAA. “That makes Safety Cloud digital alerting a natural fit to the FLEXConnect™ experience.”
Safety Cloud delivers real-time safety notifications from emergency vehicles, work zones, tow trucks, and other active road hazards to millions of drivers every day. This technology, which is embedded in compatible Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, and Volkswagen vehicles, as well as Apple Maps and Waze navigation apps, improves roadway safety by instantly alerting drivers to approaching and nearby emergency and public works vehicles, making it easier and safer to perform public and emergency services.
The integration between Safety Cloud and FLEXConnect™ will allow drivers to receive alerts through an in-vehicle information system of nearby roadway hazards. This joint solution will even go a step beyond digital alerting. When the vehicle is alerted that the driver is in an emergency situation, FLEXConnect™ will notify and inform other nearby drivers via Safety Cloud that there is a disabled vehicle ahead.
“HAAS Alert is thrilled to enter into this partnership with Mitsubishi Electric,” said Hussein Zaarour, Vice President of Business Development - Connected Vehicles at HAAS Alert. “Mitsubishi Electric’s focus on automotive innovation and safety is in perfect lockstep with HAAS Alert’s mission to make vehicles and roads safer and smarter.”
About HAAS Alert
HAAS Alert's mission is to build lifesaving mobility solutions that make vehicles and roads safer and smarter. Their vision is a connected, collision-free world where everyone gets home safely. HAAS Alert makes roads and communities safer by delivering digital alerts from emergency response, municipal and private fleets, work zones, and connected infrastructure to nearby drivers through its vehicle communication platform.
For more information, visit https://www.haasalert.com.
About Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America
MEAA is a consistently dependable supplier that creates high-quality in-car systems for major OEMs around the world. Known for our innovative components, we leverage our deep technology expertise to deliver autonomous-ready and ADAS solutions, premium audio systems, high-definition displays, and powertrain electronics for standard, EV, and hybrid vehicles. Our innovation culture and operational excellence, which extends far beyond automotive, makes us uniquely poised to help automakers navigate the future of mobility. MEAA has had a North American presence since 1979 and currently operates in 50 locations.
For more information, visit https://www.meaa-mea.com/.
HAAS Alert and Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America, Inc. announced a strategic partnership to lead the next generation of in-vehicle experience. MEAA’s latest in-cabin monitoring system, FLEXConnect™, now integrates HAAS Alert’s Safety Cloud digital alerting platform to provide drivers with an extra level of protection.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — In the crucial, chaotic minutes after a gunman in Uvalde, Texas, began firing inside an elementary school, a police officer now accused of failing to protect the children stood by without making a move to stop the carnage, a prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.
School officer Adrian Gonzales arrived at the scene of one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history while the teenage assailant was still outside the building. But he did not try to distract or engage him, even when a teacher pointed out the direction of the shooter, special prosecutor Bill Turner said during opening statements of a criminal trial.
The officer only went inside Robb Elementary “after the damage had been done,” Turner said.
Defense attorneys disputed the accusations that Gonzales — one of two officers charged in the aftermath of the 2022 attack — did nothing, saying he radioed for more help and evacuated children as other police arrived.
“The government makes it want to seem like he just sat there,” said defense attorney Nico LaHood. “He did what he could, with what he knew at the time.”
Prosecutors focused sharply on Gonzales’ steps in the minutes after the shooting began and as the first officers arrived. They did not address the hundreds of other local, state and federal officers who arrived and waited more than an hour to confront the gunman, who was eventually killed by a tactical team of officers.
Gonzales, who is no longer a Uvalde schools officer, has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment and could be sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison if convicted.
It’s rare for an officer to be criminally charged with not doing more to save lives.
“He could have stopped him, but he didn’t want to be the target,” said Velma Lisa Duran, sister of teacher Irma Garcia, who was among the 19 students and two teachers who were killed.
Duran, who showed up early at the courthouse to watch the beginning of the trial, said authorities stood by while her sister “died protecting children.”
Defense attorneys described an officer who tried to assess where the gunman was while thinking he was being fired on without protection against a high-powered rifle.
Gonzales was among the first group to go into the building before they took fire from Salvador Ramos, the officer’s attorneys said.
“This isn’t a man waiting around. This isn’t a man failing to act,” defense attorney Jason Goss said.
Gonzales and former Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo are the only two officers to face criminal charges over the response. Arredondo’s trial has not been scheduled.
Gonzales, a 10-year veteran of the police force, had extensive active shooter training, the special prosecutor said.
“When a child calls 911, we have a right to expect a response,” Turner said, his voice trembling with emotion.
Stephanie Hale, who was teaching at Robb Elementary the day of the attack, struggled through tears to describe running with students from the playground to the school building and hiding in a classroom.
Hale said once inside, she and other teachers grabbed scissors to defend themselves if the gunman came in the room. Hale described students hiding in the dark as she crawled on her belly to reach the ones who were struggling to stay calm.
“We got together and came up with a plan: To do what we had to do to defend” the children, Hale said.
She discovered later some of the children had grabbed safety scissors to mimic the teachers.
The trial, which is expected to last about two weeks, is sure to be traumatic for the victims’ families. Some are expected to testify, along with law enforcement agents, emergency dispatchers and school employees.
As testimony began, tissue boxes were brought to the families. Some shook their heads as they listened to audio from the first 911 calls, but as they heard the voices become more frantic, the cries in the courtroom were inescapable.
The trial was moved to Corpus Christi after Gonzales’ attorneys argued he could not receive a fair trial in Uvalde.
Some families of the victims have voiced anger that more officers were not charged given that nearly 400 federal, state and local officers converged on the school soon after the attack.
Terrified students inside the classrooms called 911 and parents outside begged for intervention by officers, some of whom could hear shots being fired while they stood in a hallway.
An investigation found 77 minutes passed from the time authorities arrived until they breached the classroom and killed Ramos, who was obsessed with violence and notoriety in the months leading up to the shooting.
State and federal reviews of the shooting cited cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned why officers waited so long.
The officer’s attorneys told jurors that there was plenty of blame to go around — from the lack of security at the school to police policy — and that prosecutors will try to play on their emotions by showing photos from the scene.
“What the prosecution wants you to do is get mad at Adrian. They are going to try to play on your emotions,” Goss said.
“The monster who hurt these children is dead,” he said. “He did not get this justice.”
Prosecutors likely will face a high bar to win a conviction. Juries are often reluctant to convict law enforcement officers for inaction, as seen after the Parkland, Florida, school massacre in 2018. A sheriff’s deputy was acquitted by a jury after being charged with failing to confront the shooter in that attack — the first such prosecution in the U.S. for an on-campus shooting.
Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press journalists Nicholas Ingram in Corpus Christi, Texas; Juan A. Lozano in Houston; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.
Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales looks back while seated in the courtroom at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, Pool)
Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales, right, talks with an officer as he arrives in the courtroom at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, Pool)
Family member Jesse Rizo, center, talks to the media before the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales arrives in the courtroom at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, Pool)
A man enters the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, as jury selection continues in the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
FILE - Crosses with the names of shooting victims are placed outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
People enter the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, as jury selection continues in the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
A line forms at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, as jury selection continues in the trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
FILE - This booking image provided by the Uvalde County, Texas, Sheriff's Office shows Adrian Gonzales, a former police officer for schools in Uvalde, Texas. (Uvalde County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)
FILE - Flowers are placed around a welcome sign outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 25, 2022, to honor the victims killed in a shooting at the school. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
