In connected car news are GM, INRIX, Skywater, Bridgestone and Microsoft.
GM & INRIX Safety View Available
General Motors (NYSE: GM) and INRIX Inc., a world leader in mobility analytics and connected car services, announced that Safety View by GM Future Roads & INRIX is now widely available to transportation planners nationwide. The cloud-based application provides transportation officials with critical insights using crash, vehicle, vulnerable road user (VRU), and U.S. Census data, to help prioritize and measure the effectiveness of roadway safety projects and their impact on communities.
“Safety View by GM Future Roads & INRIX represents an important part of our growing portfolio of data-driven software solutions and offers a glimpse into some of the innovative ways we can collaborate with the public sector to support safe roadways and communities,” said Alan Wexler, GM senior vice president, Strategy and Innovation. “We are committed to creating shared value for society and our stakeholders as we aim to lead the industry transformation and bring digital safety solutions to market.”
Leveraging data analytics available through Safety View, INRIX Research published a new study analyzing the road network surrounding 27 Washington, D.C. schools with the goal of better understanding driving behaviors in school zones. Findings from the new study demonstrate some of the real-time insights that can be gathered using Safety View’s analytics capabilities and datasets, which are customizable by geography. Below are key insights from the Washington, D.C. study:
- Speeding and the number of crashes didn’t vary much between school zone and non-school zone streets, but the severity of crashes was marginally lowered where school zone designations were present.
- Traffic and school zone signs didn’t appear to have a large effect on slowing down speeding, according to a sample evaluation of signs.
- Speeding is more prevalent in school zones with higher percentages of students on free- or reduced-lunch programs.
“As we officially roll out Safety View to our customers, today’s study helps illustrate the critical insights the tool can provide to help improve roadway safety in our communities,” said Bryan Mistele, co-founder and CEO of INRIX. “The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides transportation officials with a historic opportunity to make their infrastructure smarter, safer, and greener in ways that were previously unimaginable or unattainable. Now more than ever is the time to invest in and utilize data to better inform the future of our roadway networks and to understand how things may vary based on demographics and at the community level.”
Safety View’s benefits are especially important as government agencies come together to counter the growing number of fatal crashes. The recent passage of the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law includes $5 billion in discretionary funds as part of the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program. With applications due by 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, Sept. 15, SS4A creates new resources for developing and executing road safety plans aimed at the goal of zero traffic-related fatalities. Safety View can help streamline the funding application process by providing the datasets and analytics tools in one place.
GM Future Roads and INRIX first announced their collaboration in May 2022 to respond to the growing demand for safety solutions. With the new report highlighting just some of Safety View’s capabilities, transportation professionals will be able to tap into additional key benefits that can help improve understanding and performance of roadway networks, including:
- Access to critical safety and demographic datasets in one cloud-based application
- Identifying hazardous roadway segments through valuable insights about elements that elevate risk and prioritize those that need the most attention
- Evaluating the impact of a Vision Zero action plan with access to near real-time insights through easy-to-use visual analysis tools
- Accelerating the funding application process by providing the required datasets and analytics tools needed in one place
With its strong network of connected cars on U.S. and Canadian roads, General Motors believes joining forces with INRIX to make aggregated vehicle insights available to public agencies is a major step to help increase the safety of U.S. roads. INRIX brings a deep understanding of the public sector and has a proven ability to create advanced solutions for generating insights from vehicle and device data to make mobility smarter, safer and greener.1 This new collaboration between General Motors and INRIX marks an important advancement in the mission to help local and tribal governments, metropolitan planning organizations and other road authorities achieve their safety goals through connected vehicle data innovation.
Transportation officials are invited to join a webinar to learn more about Safety View and experience its features firsthand. Additional product information can be found here. To explore findings from the School Traffic study by INRIX Research, visit here.
SkyWater Tech Joins ASIC
SkyWater Technology (NASDAQ: SKYT), the trusted technology realization partner, announced its membership in the American Semiconductor Innovation Coalition (ASIC) which represents more than 100 businesses, startups, universities, national labs and nonprofits. ASIC is dedicated to providing solutions from lab to fab for the National Semiconductor Technology Center (NSTC) and the National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program (NAPMP) that are targeting the manufacturing R&D needs of the semiconductor industry as part of the CHIPS+ (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) for America Act funding.
Bridgestone Partners with Microsoft
Bridgestone Corporation (Bridgestone) announced a collaboration with Microsoft to use Microsoft Azure to accelerate development and go-to-market strategies in support of Bridgestone’s digital transformation and sustainable solutions portfolio.
“Since our first collaboration announcement in 2020, Microsoft has been a valuable partner in both our European and Americas markets,” said Paolo Ferrari, Joint Global Chief Operating Officer, Bridgestone Corporation, and President & CEO, Bridgestone Americas. “We are excited to build on this collaboration with enhanced and expanded offerings that allow Bridgestone globally to develop new innovations and quickly deliver them to our customers aligned with the Bridgestone E8 Commitment.”
Advanced and predictive maintenance analytics deliver greater productivity and efficiency for customers. Using Azure will enable Bridgestone to create value for customers, primarily global fleet and OEM customers, by integrating advanced tire analytics to better understand tire wear and casing health to maximize tire retreading and inform when tire maintenance may be needed. Both companies will continue to use the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform to capture and analyze tire data in real-time as part of a fully integrated vehicle ecosystem.
“We know that uptime, driver safety, and total cost of ownership are paramount for Fleets, for example,” said Ferrari. “The Connected Vehicle Platform allows us to provide insights through each of these lenses, as well as others, using data directly from the tire to unlock value that otherwise remains trapped.”
Bridgestone will also build new cloud capabilities using Azure that further streamline and modernize the company’s core tire business and IT operations, including workplace productivity. Bridgestone will use Microsoft solutions to strengthen operational effectiveness and deliver increased flexibility and scalability across enterprise tools and platforms. Improved agility across core infrastructure will result in quicker expansion of tire-centric solutions to the customer, improved efficiencies and collaboration across the enterprise, more robust governance and security, and overall operational cost savings.