How Nexar is using AI to improve auto safety

Using dashcams to deliver insights to drivers

Israel is home to Waze, one of the world’s most popular GPS navigation apps. Now another Israeli company, Nexar, is offering a different solution based on real-time inter-vehicle networking — with the goal of improving road safety.

According to Eran Shir, Nexar’s founder and CEO, dashcams capture more than 50 million miles of road every month. Already, two trillion images have been uploaded to Nexar’s cloud thus far, complete with annotations and insights.

To feed data into the Nexar system, drivers must install a dashcam and download the Nexar mobile app. Dashcam footage streams straight to the app. Nexar’s AI-powered algorithms then analyze the video streams to detect objects that might potentially pose an obstacle or cause an accident — such as other vehicles, traffic lights, potholes, and traffic signs.

Nexar’s solution has multiple purposes: It provides detailed post-collision reports for the benefit of drivers and insurance companies. It also alerts drivers if a lane or a street is blocked due to construction work, a garbage truck, or other obstacles. In New York and New Jersey, for example, Nexar is running a pilot that lets drivers know when a traffic light will turn green.

Eran says these features are just the tip of the iceberg. “Just like the last decade and before was about web and social data, the next decade will be around physical data,” he says. “It will be around how can we merge the physical world with all the insights that we can extract to make our life better.”

Watch the video above or go to getnexar.com to learn more.