Connected Car News: OmniVision, Netradyne, Chevy, Cambridge Mobile Telematics, Toyota, Jabil, eyeSight, Autoliv, Seeing Machines, Delphi, Innoviz & Black Duck

Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), the global leader in smartphone telematics, has launched The DriveWell Fleet Program, a new behavior-based smartphone telematics solution for commercial fleets. The new offering enables fleet owners and insurers to significantly improve employee safety, reduce the number of accidents and claims and increase operational efficiency and performance.

The new solution, available now, offers insurers, commercial drivers and fleet owners everything they need to optimize the performance, safety and cost of their operations, including:

• A smartphone app and IoT-enabled tag that provides fleet drivers trip-by-trip feedback and insights on driving behavior and performance.
• Gamification functionality that sparks performance and safety improvements by giving drivers the ability to compete with one another, both individually and as teams.
• Advanced analytics and machine lerarning technology that capture and convert risky driving activities into actionable insights, scores and performance feedback.
• An intuitive web portal for fleet owners and managers to review driver scores and habits, and provide improvement-based coaching. The management portal also provides vehicle, driver and location-based tracking and history to give fleet leaders total control and transparency.

As part of the program launch, Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance in Japan began offering the app to its commercial customers in July, as a new service called Biz Safety.

ABI Predicts Exponental Grow of Connected Car Transport

ABI Research’s whitepaper, The New Ecosystem for Prognostics and Preventative Maintenance in Software-Defined Vehicles, highlights the exponential growth rate of the connected car transportation sector, with estimated global automotive prognostic spending expected to exceed $21 billion by 2020 and telematics service subscriptions to surpass 7 million by 2021. The report provides detailed insights into the rapid development of connected transportation ecosystems, the role of emerging purpose-built AI maintenance platforms, and the substantial return on investment that predictive maintenance is delivering to connected enterprises.

The comprehensive ABI Research analysis also forecasts tremendous benefits for the entire transportation sector and provides a glimpse into how future advancements in telematics and prognostic technology will continue to deliver measureable results, including up to a 75 percent reduction in equipment and asset breakdowns, and a reduction in downtime of up to 45 percent.

Toyota  & Servco Test Car Sharing

Toyota and Servco Pacific Inc. (Servco) have partnered to test a new car-sharing technology in Honolulu, Hawaii. The suite of software and services is an important part of Toyota’s Mobility Services Platform (MSPF) which will offer various functions to enable a more convenient mobility experience. When the employee-only pilot testing program concludes, Servco, the distributor of Toyota vehicles in Hawaii, will use the car-sharing technology to launch a new Honolulu-based car share business by the end of 2017.

 GreenPower Motor Company Inc. announcec that its Synapse™ Shuttle all-electric bus has been approved by the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) for the Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP) for $95,000 for each Synapse™ Shuttle sold in the State of California. In addition, HVIP provides increased incentives of $15,000 for fleets located in or serving disadvantaged communities and $10,000 for the first three buses acquired by an operator.

The Synapse Shuttle is available in a 36.5 foot model with seating for up to 49 passengers or a 30 foot model with seating for up to 37 passengers. Due to the clean sheet design, users can define the interior space of the Synapse™ Shuttle to fit their requirements, including the seating, racking or festival set-up with tables. The base model has 100 kWh of batteries and can be configured with over 200 kWh of batteries depending on the duty cycle for the operator and charging needs for the bus. One of the many options includes an on-board charging system so that the Synapse™ Shuttle can take advantage of Level 2 charging systems.

Jabil & eyeSight Partnership

Jabil Inc.  and eyeSight Technologies announced a new partnership to develop next-generation in-car sensing technology that delivers the most advanced levels of driver monitoring and gesture control. The partnership combines Jabil’s automotive-grade optics capabilities with eyeSight’s computer vision and deep learning software. Together, Jabil and eyeSight are developing a system that assesses the presence of an active and aware driver and improves human-machine interface (HMI).

The combined hardware and software system operates with sub-pixel accuracy enabling higher-resolution driver monitoring. The accuracy of the camera modules, together with intelligent software, allows the system to be smaller, resulting in reduced weight and footprint.

The scalable system, which can be integrated into existing cockpit electronics, uses time-of-flight and infrared capabilities to enable:

• Driver identification – facial recognition, gender and age
• Driver attentiveness – head pose, posture, eyelid tracking and mood
• Driver distraction – iris tracking, gaze tracking
• Gesture control – touch-free control of navigation, infotainment, HVAC, etc.

Autoliv & Seeing Machines Partner to Address Distracted Driving

Jersey CPL&L Customers $10,000 Off Nissan LEAF

Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) customers can save $10,000 off the price of a 2017 all-electric Nissan LEAF – simply by showing their electric bill and a copy of the official program flyer to a participating Nissan dealership.

The special rebate offer is available from Nissan North America, Inc., until September 30, 2017, or while supplies last, for all three Nissan LEAF trim models.  With a list price ranging from $30,000 – $36,000, depending on model, customers have the potential to save about a third off the price of a Nissan LEAF just by being a JCP&L customer.

In addition, the purchaser could qualify for up to $7,500 in federal electric vehicle tax credits, and the New Jersey Sales and Use Tax Act provides a tax exemption for qualified zero-emission vehicles.