Zoomcar partners Mobileye and ICICI Lombard in safe driving initiative for India

Zoomcar, the first self-drive car rental company in India, and Mobileye NV, the global leader in Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), represented in India by Chartered NextGen Solutions, have signed a joint agreement with insurance provider ICICI Lombard as part of a safe driving initiative.

The move is aimed at using safety control and warning systems employing computer vision systems that incorporate monocular video processing algorithms running on a system-on-a-chip architecture (‘EyeQ’) computing platform. The cost of road accidents to the Indian economy is pegged at around 3% of GDP, with 141,526 fatalities in 2014.

Mobileye ADAS is designed to prevent road accidents that occur primarily due to driver inattention. The system provides three primary warning types: lane departure, headway monitoring, and forward collision warning. The technology is based on a small camera located on the inside of the front windshield using image processing that provides warnings in dangerous situations. The proprietary system was developed by Mobileye, leveraging its expertise in vision systems for accident prevention.  The technology was developed at Mobileye HQ in Jerusalem, Israel.

Inculcating safe driving habits

The system not only targets accident prevention but also helps improve driver behaviour and safe driving habits such as turning on indicators prior to lane departure among others.  Mobileye has been installed by Zoomcar in 40 Mahindra and Ford vehicles which will initially ply in New Delhi, followed by other metro cities in India. Zoomcar plans to leverage these initial learnings and subsequently add Mobileye ADAS to over 10,000 cars by the end of 2017.

Extensive research has shown that around 80% of crashes and 65% of near-crashes involve some form of driver inattention within three seconds before the event. Mobileye provides real-time audible and visual alerts to the driver when danger is imminent, thereby allowing for corrective action to be taken to avoid or mitigate the accident. The provision of such real-time feedback to drivers also instils a keen awareness of the location of the vehicle in relation to the road and other road users, thereby improving driver behaviour. This, in turn, leads to a reduction in fuel consumption and vehicle wear and tear, due to drivers maintaining a safe distance and driving less aggressively.

Zoomcar has also introduced other technological enhancements onto its platform. A speeding alert system enabled via an in-car ‘smart device’ helps the company monitor the speed of its vehicles in real-time and penalise overspeeding customers. Using Bluetooth-based hardware tied to the OBD (on board diagnostics) port, it monitors driver performance by assessing braking, steering and fuel efficiency, among various parameters. Poor driving habits in the form of inappropriate clutch riding or harsh acceleration are also captured and penalties imposed. This information is then relayed to the driver in real time to ensure the individual drives safer for the rest of his/her trip. 

This system, according to Zoomcar, helps leverage objective criteria to rate drivers, thereby improving driver/passenger safety and also maintaining vehicle health. This new platform also provides dynamic feedback on in-trip fuel efficiency, thereby helping to ensure that the driver can save significant money on fuel, which is the largest variable cost on any trip. 

Drive safe, pay less

According to Michael Hirsh, regional manager; India, Mobileye, “Given the pace of technological acceleration in India in all sectors, and the degree of commitment as demonstrated by Zoomcar, I believe Indians can look forward to enjoying lifesaving ADAS technologies in the immediate term.”

Sanjay Datta, chief – Underwriting, Reinsurance & Claims, ICICI Lombard, said: “We believe that the warning system’s technology will significantly reduce the possibility of car accidents due to drivers’ inattention and therefore a reduction in high-severity losses such as third party claims, bodily injuries or damages to the vehicle. Our endeavour is always to minimise risk and provide better solutions for our customers. The initiative is designed to reduce accidents for those installing safety systems in their vehicles. Globally, insurers underwrite motor insurance on the basis of driving experience and risk attributed to the vehicle / driver. This joint initiative by us is a step towards such risk-based underwriting. Customers who adopt ADAS like Mobileye are not only adopting a new, improved and safer way of travel but possibly saving lives as well.”

“At Zoomcar, it is critical that we leverage the latest products to ensure the maximum safety and security for our rapidly expanding customer base. With this partnership with Mobileye and ICICI Lombard, we will significantly reduce the number of major accidents in our fleet. This is enormously important because it helps bolster our community’s confidence in the safety of self-drive. Over time, our vehicles will remain in even better condition, thereby allowing even more individuals the opportunity to experience the freedom of self-drive. The purpose of the Mobileye technology is to provide real-time assistance to our customers so they can avoid potentially dangerous accidents. In addition to the strong support of the Mobileye team, we also welcome the cooperation of ICICI Lombard. This really demonstrates an industry-wide effort to tackle the road safety challenge,” said Greg Moran, CEO and co-founder, Zoomcar.