In connected car news is Arriver, Qualcomm, Cambridge Mobile Telematics, Wejo and Polestar.
Arriver Arrives at Qualcomm
Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) announced it has completed its acquisition of Arriver™ from SSW Partners, enhancing Qualcomm Technologies ability to deliver open, fully integrated, and competitive Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) solutions to automakers and Tier-1 suppliers at scale.
As a result of the acquisition, Qualcomm Technologies will incorporate Arriver’s Computer Vision, Drive Policy and Driver Assistance assets into its leading Snapdragon Ride™ Platform portfolio, building on its previous collaboration with Arriver, when owned by Veoneer Inc. Snapdragon Ride Platform, a comprehensive portfolio for high performance central compute and vision system solutions features Snapdragon® family of SoCs and accelerator products, addresses the automotive ecosystem’s growing needs for a scalable and upgradeable integrated software SoC aimed at providing functional safety. In addition to its ability to scale across a wide range of vehicle types, Snapdragon Ride platform’s modularity provides the flexibility to leverage software functionality developed by automakers./
Cambridge Expands DriveWell
Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), the world’s largest telematics service provider, announced the expansion of its AI-driven telematics platform, DriveWell®, to connected vehicles. The industry-leading platform gathers sensor data from millions of IoT devices, including smartphones, proprietary Tags, dashcams, third-party devices — and now, connected vehicles with DriveWell Auto™ — and fuses them with contextual data to create a unified view of policy risk from driver and vehicle behavior. The normalization of driving data across disparate data sources provides auto insurers, automakers, rideshare, fleet, wireless, and safety companies an unparalleled, physics-based view into what’s actually happening on the road and behind the wheel.
The addition of connected vehicle data to DriveWell® comes amid significant disruption in the auto insurance and automotive industries. IoT Analytics projects the total number of global IoT devices to surpass 27 billion by 2025. Analysts expect 7.2 billion active smartphones and over 400 million connected vehicles on the road in the same time period.
“There is a wave of innovative IoT data sources coming that will be critical to understanding driving risk and lowering crash rates. CMT fuses these disparate data sources to produce a unified view of driving,” said Hari Balakrishnan, CTO and founder of CMT. “Fusion is the only way to unify everyday driving behaviors across vehicles and drivers in a policy. For example, a family that wants a telematics program may have both connected and unconnected vehicles. You need fusion to give them a consistent customer experience.”
Despite the rapid growth of connected vehicles, the adoption of connected vehicle data by auto insurers is still in its early stages. Due to the complexity of normalizing data across auto manufacturers, auto insurers are integrating connected vehicle sources in an ad-hoc way, sometimes relying on data aggregators. The resulting data sources are siloed from smartphone and IoT data, creating disjointed customer experiences and product offerings. DriveWell Auto™ fuses data streams from connected vehicles with other relevant data sources to give auto insurers and other companies a single consistent source for all their driving data.
The first offering from DriveWell Auto™ is VIN-based risk factors. These include verified VIN, verified mileage, garaging information, and vehicle-specific factors — all fused with smartphone trip data. These factors help insurers reduce leakage costs, combat fraud, and create a more holistic view of driver and vehicle risk. Self-reported odometer readings and inaccuracies in garaging information cost US auto insurers over $8 billion every year.
DriveWell Auto™ will add additional features this year. , DriveWell Auto™ provides connected vehicle data from over 20 automakers in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
CMT’s Distracted Driving Report
Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), the world’s largest telematics service provider, announced the availability of its 2022 US Distracted Driving Report. The report explores driving behaviors like driving time, speeding, and phone distraction from 2019 through 2022 in the United States. The new report is available for free on the CMT website.
The report finds that distracted driving levels — when drivers actively use their phone while driving — are at their highest point since the pandemic began. In April 2020, distracted driving skyrocketed across the nation, increasing by over 18% from the start of the pandemic, averaging one minute and 34 seconds per driving hour. In February 2022, distracted driving intensified, reaching one minute and 38 seconds per driving hour. Distraction in February 2022 was 30% higher than February 2020, the last month before the pandemic.
The pandemic has also disrupted typical distracted driving patterns over the past two years. Historically, distracted driving has been seasonal, rising in the summer and falling in the winter. In 2019, distracted driving rose by 9% in the summer months. In 2020, this figure was over 11%. In 2021, distraction was high throughout the year.
Distraction patterns have also shifted throughout the day. However, the pandemic has impacted nighttime distraction the most. Distraction increased 40% from February 2020 to April 2020 for trips from 11:00 PM to 6:00 AM, reaching 1 minute and 20 seconds per hour of driving. In February 2022, nighttime distraction increased to 1 minute and 29 seconds per hour.
“Over the past two years, distracted driving has been like a pandemic within a pandemic, increasing at alarming rates and changing drivers’ behaviors as the pandemic wears on. As more drivers hit the nation’s roads, this intensified distraction will put even more people at risk,” said Ryan McMahon, VP of Strategy for CMT. “As we start Distracted Driving Awareness Month this April, we hope this report reminds everyone that distraction hasn’t gone away with the pandemic — it’s actually worse than ever. The bright spot is that we know that technology and regulations can significantly reduce distraction. The key is that the market needs to bring these solutions to scale and lawmakers need to pass stronger, enforceable hands-free legislation.”
Distracted driving killed over 3,100 people in 2020, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). NHTSA also reports that over 38,000 people were killed in road crashes that same year, the highest in over a decade. Experts suggest the number of deaths caused by distracted driving is likely much higher due to the difficulty of tracking distraction before a crash.
CMT’s 2022 US Distracted Driving Report also covers trends in overall driving time, the impact of the Delta and Omicron variants, and speeding behaviors throughout the pandemic. Download the new report by visiting www.cmtelematics.com/the-2022-us-distracted-driving-report.///
Wejo Launches Wejo RTTI–Real-Time-Traffic Intelligence Insights
-Wejo Group Limited (NASDAQ: WEJO), a global leader in Smart Mobility cloud and software solutions for connected, electric and autonomous vehicle data, announced the launch of Wejo RTTITM, a Real-Time Traffic Intelligence solution that can provide critical insights via an up-to-the-minute and holistic view of traffic conditions and safety incidents on roads using aggregated data derived from millions of connected vehicles. Wejo RTTI can be utilized by public agencies, civil engineering firms, mapping & navigation providers and logistics companies to get a better view of what’s happening here and now. This insight allows for a real-world impact on road safety and congestion within a community using easily digestible real-time traffic data.
The Wejo RTTI solution offers several features, including ultra-low latency, highly granular traffic updates and accurate traffic events, as well as real-time speeds and travel-times for roads. This service enables quick detection of changing traffic conditions, identification of road closures and unexpected slowdowns situations, helping the unpredictable become more manageable.
Built for any developer or mobility service provider that wishes to integrate real-time traffic into its solutions, Wejo RTTI is available via APIs and can help car/ride sharing applications, logistics companies and other gig-economy companies improve estimated time of arrivals. It also enables the ability to implement dynamic pricing for congestion charging on routes, at tolls and in parking structures.
Data Accuracy and Integrity
Visibility into real-time traffic data allows users to proactively recommend safety improvements to road networks, identify urban traffic congestion patterns as they happen and make decisions based on accurate real-time intelligent aggregated data. Users can assess one of the best approaches for future planning and make immediate changes. Wejo RTTI also provides accurate insights without human intervention, removing any bias from the research. Actionable insights derived from the solution can be used to mitigate risks and improve safety.
Speed of Visibility
The real-time aspect of Wejo RTTI allows users to understand and respond to real road traffic and safety conditions quickly by having insight into what is happening on the road right now. This allows users to reduce time, money and effort in collecting data to understand pre/post-development analysis and go straight to analyzing insights when they want, providing a clear view of before, during and after. Wejo RTTI also helps users to understand in real-time where congestion exists, unreported road closures and unexpected slowdowns.
Boost Operational Efficiency
By having access to intelligent real-time aggregated data derived directly from millions of connected vehicles, users can reduce reliance on the need for field devices like sensors and cameras and reduce the time spent analyzing multiple traffic data sources to find answers. It also allows users to get access to a real-time view of roads, highways, and public infrastructure – not just where sensors, cameras and field devices are located.
Drive Innovation
With direct access to connected vehicle data from approximately 12M vehicles in real-time, Wejo is leading the way in Urban Smart Mobility by providing access to real-time traffic insights that can reinforce the backbone of smart city infrastructure and technology. As connected vehicle data becomes prolific and more cars become connected, both in sophistication and volume, Wejo RTTI will provide a means for users to drill into previously inaccessible fresh sources of real-time data.
Polestar Updates Android R
Polestar continues to deliver evolving digital car connectivity to Polestar 2 owners with the latest upgrade including Android R for the Android Automotive OS infotainment system. The latest software update also brings enhanced app and functionality potential for the future and will roll out to owners incrementally starting in April 2022.
The P2.0 software update is the latest in the ongoing series of Over-the-Air (OTA) software releases. Software enhancements are downloaded and installed remotely, allowing Polestar to leverage on digital connectivity to accelerate the integration of new functionality and personalization for Polestar 2 owners.
Ten major OTA releases totaling close to 100 improvements have been issued since launching remote updates for Polestar 2, representing an average of one major OTA release every seven weeks.
Recent examples of enhancements delivered via OTA updates include drivetrain optimizations, the ability to schedule preferred charging times, Polestar Digital Key improvements, an eco climate mode to improve real world range, and battery optimization with preconditioning, amongst others.
Polestar 2 customers are embracing the benefits and convenience of OTA updates, with more than 90% of all Polestar 2 owners installing updates.
“Software technology in our cars should not be much different from how the latest software is pushed out on smartphones in everyday life,” says Polestar CEO, Thomas Ingenlath. “With OTA updates, our customers receive constant enhancements without making a trip to a workshop. We’re very encouraged by the positive response as seen from the exponential growth in the number of OTA installations and will continue to deliver ongoing enhancements.”
Looking ahead for 2022, Polestar aims to build on the positive customer response by ramping up the introduction of more apps, starting with the Journey Log app launched in February 2022. The app allows Polestar 2 drivers to export the journey logs – useful for those who need to claim travel expenses at work. The Journey Log app is currently available in the UK, US, Canada, Sweden and Australia and will continue to be rolled out incrementally in all markets where the Google Play app store is available.
A collection of infotainment features was launched for Polestar 2 in 2021 as well. Of these, the Vivaldi browser, Video Player and A Better Routeplanner, are most popular with customers, with more than 12,000 downloads each as of the end of March 2022. Polestar will also continue to leverage on the joint collaborations with partners and developers using Android Automotive OS.