Nexyad and HERE Technologies Deploy Next-Gen cognitive AI to Improve Vehicle Safety

Paris, France – Nexyad, an embedded, real-time platform for aggregating on-board data, and HERE Technologies, the leading location data, and technology platform, have teamed up to bring cognitive Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the world of road safety. Nexyad employs cognitive AI to aggregate and interpret extensive data sources in a vehicle in real-time to determine whether a particular driving behavior is appropriate given the surrounding context. This assessment can be easily delivered to a driver via mobile phone and is calculated using only four sets of data: HERE map, Global Navigation Satellite System, electronic horizon, and acceleration. Nexyad’s platform is also scalable, with the ability to aggregate data from Advanced Driving Assistant Systems (ADAS) sensors such as camera, radar and lidar, weather (visibility and temperature), and traffic data.

Speed recommendation for vehicle

Nexyad’s real-time data aggregation platform outputs two values 20 times per second: the driver’s lack of caution and the maximum speed recommended given the road conditions – legal speed limit, road roughness, road topography, weather, and traffic. Nexyad's analysis is based on thousands of road accident reports, and it employs a set of rules from modern hybrid AI, such as knowledge-based systems, deep learning, neural gas, PAC (Possibly Approximatively Correct) learning, game theory, reinforcement learning, possibility theory, and fuzzy logic.

Nexyad’s approach goes much further than the European requirement for vehicles to be aware of the legal speed limit on each road segment by recommending a ‘maximum cautious speed’ based on real-time data and context-specific to each vehicle, driver, and driving environment (Intelligent Speed Assist). SafetyNex, Nexyad’s safety coach, acts as a true co-pilot for the driver, providing real-time guidance to anticipate potential emergencies that may lead to an accident. This proactive coaching takes place while driving and has been shown to reduce accident rates by at least 25 percent.

Risk score for drivers and autonomous shuttles

Nexyad assigns drivers a risk score based on their driving behavior and insurers use this platform to make recommendations to drivers and generate risk profiles. Brightmile, a start-up incubated by Kamet, AXA’s insurer tech studio, is using Nexyad’s SafetyNex software as one of the parameters of their smartphone-based telematics solutions for fleets. Montbleu, an Indian company, also uses SafetyNex for its smartphone-based app ‘ROAD-Drive it Safe.’ Milla, a French autonomous electric shuttle, employs SafetyNex to adapt vehicle speeds to driving conditions and alerts the service operator (on-board and/or off-board) to take appropriate action when the level of risk is determined to be excessive.

Nexyad has begun to integrate the HERE HD Live Map to provide OEMs with Predictive Automotive Cruise Control services, in which appropriate speeds are not only recommended but also automatically implemented. Moving forward, connected vehicles will use SafetyNex to assess their level of caution while driving and will be able to maintain the appropriate speed even in unknown road conditions.

Gérard Yahiaoui, CEO, Nexyad, said, “We found that the maps from HERE are accurate to the centimetre and constantly updated to the second. Every detail counts for us - the topography of the road, the exact positioning of the crossing, the location of a school. With our mission being to save lives, we cannot settle for anything less than the best.”

To this, Gilles Martinelli, Director - Automotive, HERE Technologies, added, “Nexyad’s SafetyNex software is one of a kind – not only does it provide a score for the lack of caution of the driver, based on the environment in real-time, it also recommends an appropriate driving speed. This is the future for Predictive Automotive Cruise Control systems, insurers, and autonomous vehicles.”

Image Source: Magic Wand Media