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Japan’s SmartDrive, car telematics startup, nabs $9M series B to ramp up big data analysis

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See the original story in Japanese. Japan’s Smart Drive, offering the DriveOps vehicle management platform utilizing big data, announced last week that it has fundraised a total of 1 billion yen (about $9.0 million) in its series B round. The details as to the pay-in date or investors were undisclosed but investor names will be made available in accordance with the announcement of business partnerships. Coincidentally, the firm revealed that it has been developing a drive recorder app for smartphones. This app can detect crucial moments related to dangerous driving or traffic accidents from an enormous amount of video data inside / outside of commercial vehicles, shot using mounted cameras for big data analysis use, and acquire video images for several seconds before and after the incident, to support easy search. The firm is to launch this app around summer, and will enable more accurate real-time video analysis / search service regarding driving. See also: Japan’s SmartDrive unveils vehicle analytics solution, poised for operational testing Japan’s SmartDrive unveils DriveOps to help optimize work efficiency with automobile big data Resulting from big data analysis for 10,000 vehicles It was February of 2014 that I heard the concept of Smart Drive or…

See the original story in Japanese.

Japan’s Smart Drive, offering the DriveOps vehicle management platform utilizing big data, announced last week that it has fundraised a total of 1 billion yen (about $9.0 million) in its series B round. The details as to the pay-in date or investors were undisclosed but investor names will be made available in accordance with the announcement of business partnerships.

Coincidentally, the firm revealed that it has been developing a drive recorder app for smartphones. This app can detect crucial moments related to dangerous driving or traffic accidents from an enormous amount of video data inside / outside of commercial vehicles, shot using mounted cameras for big data analysis use, and acquire video images for several seconds before and after the incident, to support easy search. The firm is to launch this app around summer, and will enable more accurate real-time video analysis / search service regarding driving.

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Resulting from big data analysis for 10,000 vehicles

It was February of 2014 that I heard the concept of Smart Drive or vehicular big data from the current CEO Retsu Kitagawa who had been studying traffic-related big data analysis at his university then. His attractive story made me imagine the future of its service which was under stealth development.

On the other hand, it had been still unclear what kind of effect would be produced from the vehicle data acquired via the OBD-II port (conventionally used for maintenance) and what type of business this technology would lead to. Over three years since then, the firm kept acquiring and analyzing detailed vehicle data, such as stop-and-go, steering angle, speed or distance from 10,000 vehicles and eventually reached conclusive results. For example, it can roughly predict how much fuel efficiency there is for a certain driving style by using these analyzed data.

Noteworthy is the fact that “driving style” can be defined even with rough information.

Smart Drive had been conventionally acquiring vehicle behavior data mainly from the maintenance port. With this method, accurate data can be obtained but there is a risk in terms of security that vehicles could be hacked remotely. Of course, it was not welcomed by vehicle manufacturers. However, as an environment to determine vehicle behavior by Smart Drive was improved, a high-accuracy analysis of driving situation such as whether a vehicle turned or not became available even with data acquired from sensors in smartphones.

Thus, the coverage range of vehicle type for driving analysis expanded significantly. That is, a chance for the firm to expand its business had increased as well. The unusage of the OBD-II port may be one of the biggest factors that the firm succeeded in partnership with multiple companies and in realization of the large-scale funding this time. The service has gradually been introduced into telematic usage-based insurance products under tie-up with Axa General Insurance in Japan or in driving situation management of delivery trucks for major chain convenience stores.

According to Kitagawa, the Smart Drive team takes on the service development with 30 members and plans to enhance this human resource by taking on more engineers specialized in analysis or big data processing while paying close attention to the video image analysis service which is scheduled for launch this summer.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s SmartDrive unveils DriveOps to help optimize work efficiency with automobile big data

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based SmartDrive, providing connected-car related services, this week announced the official launch of DriveOps which enables safe driving support through automobile condition management by connecting specialized devices to the cloud. DriveOps is a single-packaged cloud service including visualization of driving data or safe driving support for employees, as well as normal business support like expenditure management. Business operators that often use automobiles in daily work such as distribution companies can improve fuel consumption or work efficiency with it. The device for acquiring data from automobiles has become available for cigar sockets which does not depend on vehicle type, in addition to the conventional type for OBD (on-board diagnostics) port. The acquired data will be sent via smart devices installed specialized app with Bluetooth, or be directly sent with 3G network in another model. The monthly charge is 1,480 yen (about $15) at least per device and users must purchase a data communication device for each automobile. The SmartDrive team had been exploring business opportunities leveraging acquired automobile data by connecting communication devices onto OBD port for maintenance since 2014. As a result, the possibility seems to be expanding widely. CEO of the firm Retsu…

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See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based SmartDrive, providing connected-car related services, this week announced the official launch of DriveOps which enables safe driving support through automobile condition management by connecting specialized devices to the cloud.

DriveOps is a single-packaged cloud service including visualization of driving data or safe driving support for employees, as well as normal business support like expenditure management. Business operators that often use automobiles in daily work such as distribution companies can improve fuel consumption or work efficiency with it.

The device for acquiring data from automobiles has become available for cigar sockets which does not depend on vehicle type, in addition to the conventional type for OBD (on-board diagnostics) port. The acquired data will be sent via smart devices installed specialized app with Bluetooth, or be directly sent with 3G network in another model. The monthly charge is 1,480 yen (about $15) at least per device and users must purchase a data communication device for each automobile.

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The SmartDrive team had been exploring business opportunities leveraging acquired automobile data by connecting communication devices onto OBD port for maintenance since 2014. As a result, the possibility seems to be expanding widely. CEO of the firm Retsu Kitagawa explains the rise of the connected-car business.

Automobile data is required by insurance companies, automobile dealers, car lease companies, after-sales services or the semiconductor industry. The SmartDrive’s platform concept is to customize and provide big data on automobiles for such markets. For example, one of our partner Axa Direct Life Insurance provides a telematics insurance as its own product including the app, so we are a backroom boy completely.

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The acquirable data covers a variety of information: driving distance, urgent brake usage history, speed excess and engine information about failure or fuel. The firm customizes these data as needed for each partner upon provision. This time, DriveOps was launched based on expectation of such a large demand.

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Kitagawa comments on this:

For example, to business operators that need to use automobiles for business promotion, we provide information on how employees drive or whether they should use public transportation and then take automobile at the next office for better work efficiency by measuring driving distance or tracking routes (route search function is under development). There is a case where a 100-car company succeeded in cost reduction of 20 million yen (about $200,000) annually using our current information provision.

This does not mean there had been no way to know of automobile operation status. However, conventional devices like drive recorders or digital tachometers require troublesome mounting work and also cost hundreds of thousands of yen (thousands of dollars).

According to Kitagawa, the service interests major convenience store chains or distribution companies as he surmised. The firm plans to expand data coverage range utilizing on-vehicle camera and aims to realize a cloud service to increase efficiency of persons or businesses around automobiles in the future.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Driveon, driving habits checking app and device from Japan, starts crowdfunding campaign

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SmartDrive, a Japanese startup developing automobile hardware and providing big-data analytics, just launched a crowdfunding campaign for Driveon, a combination of a mobile app and an OBD-II (On-board diagnostics II) device which allows users to record and check their driving habits/skills via smartphone. See also: SmartDrive: Exploring the future of the car through big data Integrating with the device via BLE (Bluetooth low energy) to gather data like speed, temperatures both inside and outside the vehicle, sudden braking or acceleration, plus idling in addition to about 50 metrics concerning engine condition, the mobile app will also alert the driver when one acts dangerously as well as inefficiently. In this way, it will help improve driving skills so one can drive more safely. The company plans to add more options to the menu linking up users with other service providers such as insurance outfits, parking lot operators, car repairers and gas stations, aiming to reduce traffic jams and accidents in a society leveraging big data analytics. The product will be available for 9,800 yen (about $80) in the near future, but backers can now purchase it for the early-bird price starting at 3,000 yen (about $25) via pre-orders on Makuake, a crowdfunding site run by Japanese internet company CyberAgent (TSE:4751). Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

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SmartDrive, a Japanese startup developing automobile hardware and providing big-data analytics, just launched a crowdfunding campaign for Driveon, a combination of a mobile app and an OBD-II (On-board diagnostics II) device which allows users to record and check their driving habits/skills via smartphone.

See also:

Integrating with the device via BLE (Bluetooth low energy) to gather data like speed, temperatures both inside and outside the vehicle, sudden braking or acceleration, plus idling in addition to about 50 metrics concerning engine condition, the mobile app will also alert the driver when one acts dangerously as well as inefficiently. In this way, it will help improve driving skills so one can drive more safely.

The company plans to add more options to the menu linking up users with other service providers such as insurance outfits, parking lot operators, car repairers and gas stations, aiming to reduce traffic jams and accidents in a society leveraging big data analytics.

The product will be available for 9,800 yen (about $80) in the near future, but backers can now purchase it for the early-bird price starting at 3,000 yen (about $25) via pre-orders on Makuake, a crowdfunding site run by Japanese internet company CyberAgent (TSE:4751).

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The Driveon OBD-II device
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The Driveon mobile app

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s SmartDrive unveils vehicle analytics solution, poised for operational testing

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This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese. Our readers may recall that we recently reported on Japanese stealth startup SmartDrive. The startup has been developing vehicle tracking and bigdata analytics solutions, and fundraised tens of millions yen (or a few hundreds thousands dollars) from Japanese startup investment fund Anri back in February. The company unveiled the details of their service and announced today that it will launch a test operation by nstalling their device in test vehicles next month. The test will be conducted for one month in Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City, a new city in suburban Tokyo. SmartDrive will distribute their device to about 20 testers in the area and ask them to track the condition of their cars and driving data, which will be used to improve the product. Health tracking app for your car Their solution is comprised of a small accessory and a smartphone app. By connecting the accessory to an OBD (on-board diagnostics) interface to a car, it will be synced via BlueTooth with the app on a smartphone. Various metrics, like fuel efficiency or engine stats, will then be transferred to your smartphone. This process is similar to health tracking apps…

smartdrive_featuredimage

This is the abridged version of our original article in Japanese.

Our readers may recall that we recently reported on Japanese stealth startup SmartDrive. The startup has been developing vehicle tracking and bigdata analytics solutions, and fundraised tens of millions yen (or a few hundreds thousands dollars) from Japanese startup investment fund Anri back in February.

The company unveiled the details of their service and announced today that it will launch a test operation by nstalling their device in test vehicles next month. The test will be conducted for one month in Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City, a new city in suburban Tokyo.

SmartDrive will distribute their device to about 20 testers in the area and ask them to track the condition of their cars and driving data, which will be used to improve the product.

Health tracking app for your car

Their solution is comprised of a small accessory and a smartphone app. By connecting the accessory to an OBD (on-board diagnostics) interface to a car, it will be synced via BlueTooth with the app on a smartphone. Various metrics, like fuel efficiency or engine stats, will then be transferred to your smartphone. This process is similar to health tracking apps that obtain data via body sensors.

We’ve seen several startups like Y Combinator-backed Automatic (launched in 2013) and New York-based Dash Labs (launched back in June 2013) as well as several Kickstarter campaigns like this and that providing similar tracking solutions using the OBD interface.

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Bigdata solution on top of people’s driving records

SmartDrive does not have a clear business model, but CEO Retsu Kitagawa aims to monetize it via B2B2C.

For example, if an auto insurer, or a car dealer uses the SmartDrive solution and lets customers use it, they will be able to get details from customers’ vehicles and provide a cheaper insurance package or better follow-up services. US auto insurer Progressive provides an OBD device called SnapShot to better serve customers. The more types of cars these companies can acquire data from, the more fields the solution can be applied to.

SmartDrive is repeating stress tests to prepare for the operational test. We will feature them as soon as more details become available.

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SmartDrive: Exploring the future of the car through big data

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See the original article in Japanese SmartDrive, a Japanese startup developing automobile hardware and providing big-data analytics, announced on February 18th that it has allocated shares to ANRI, with the fundraising amount expected to be in somewhere in the tens of millions yen (or a few hundreds thousands dollars). According to the CEO Retsu Kitagawa, the startup will strengthen its developer team (with iOS engineers in particular) with these funds. I confess, it’s actually a little difficult to write about this company as they are currently in stealth mode. Most information about the product is not disclosed. But I can’t help but get excited about what I’ve learned so far. SmartDrive can be said to be a player in the ‘Internet of Things’ space. When thinking about that sector, two things come to mind: big data and context. I’d like to convey SmartDrive’s vision by focusing on these two. Big data in transportation SmartDrive’s product is a hybrid system that makes use of both iOS and a terminal device in a car. Various data acquired through the terminal (such as the car’s speed and direction) are designed to be shown in the iOS app, in part to help to make…

SmartDrive

See the original article in Japanese

SmartDrive, a Japanese startup developing automobile hardware and providing big-data analytics, announced on February 18th that it has allocated shares to ANRI, with the fundraising amount expected to be in somewhere in the tens of millions yen (or a few hundreds thousands dollars). According to the CEO Retsu Kitagawa, the startup will strengthen its developer team (with iOS engineers in particular) with these funds.

I confess, it’s actually a little difficult to write about this company as they are currently in stealth mode. Most information about the product is not disclosed. But I can’t help but get excited about what I’ve learned so far.

SmartDrive can be said to be a player in the ‘Internet of Things’ space. When thinking about that sector, two things come to mind: big data and context. I’d like to convey SmartDrive’s vision by focusing on these two.

Big data in transportation

SmartDrive’s product is a hybrid system that makes use of both iOS and a terminal device in a car. Various data acquired through the terminal (such as the car’s speed and direction) are designed to be shown in the iOS app, in part to help to make fuel consumption more efficient. Kitagawa described the product as a sort of upgraded Tesla Motors Dashboard. We’ll see how it looks when it’s release.

Reference: Tesla Mortors

When speaking of big data these days, Nest comes to mind, having been recently acquired by Google for $3 billion. What Google wants from that acquisition is obviously not just a thermostat, but also the data produced by individual households. Analyzing that data will help the company understand the overall picture of heating systems. The same sort of idea could be applied to the big data produced by cars.

The CEO Kitagawa is just 24 years old. After he interned at a startup in Japan he left for the USA. He took some lectures at MIT, and a year later, he went to Tokyo University to study science.

I had an interest in consumer electronics, biotech, and transportation. I decided to focus on the latter, and I came up with the idea for this business while studying at university. I adjusted my research plan to be more business oriented.

The context of the big data

SmartDrive’s terminal device is basically just a tool to acquire data. Kitagawa told us that he wants to make cars fully connected to the internet before Google takes over the connected-car market. The important thing, of course, is what they create with the data. Data itself doesn’t have value, but it needs a certain context to be utilized.

One interesting way to use the data would be to use it to address problems in transportation, such as traffic jams. The product can recognize location without GPS by using the other real-time data such as sudden the braking, direction, and rotation of the car. Through this new approach, which differs from existing vehicle information and communications system in Japan, SmartDrive hopes it can stand out. Kitagawa says it might even be possible to make suggestion about insurance services based on the data.

Kitagawa says that in the future, all car windows will be digital monitors, and cars will be sort of like smartphones. There will be thousands of ways to make use of such an interface.

Although the details about SmartDrive are currently secret, Kitagawa told us that he wants to release his product as early as this year.

The business for hardware startups is a lot more difficult than that of web startups because of the challenges involved in mass production. But yet, I think SmartDrive has the potential to show a whole new world to us.

We’ll have more details on this as we learn more.

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