Two Japanese businesses are combining resources along with global consulting services colossus Accenture in an effort to develop an algorithm aimed at transforming driver safety.
Sompo Japan Nipponkoa, a Japanese insurance company and taxi firm Daiichi Kotsu Sangyo announced the collaboration agreement with Accenture earlier this week. It disclosed that the trio of businesses will join forces to accelerate the development of an algorithm using IoT Platform Reference Architecture in a bid to understand individual driving habits - and also to identify new ways which can overhaul and transform driver safety within Japan's transportation sector.
It has been reported that the new algorithm they aim to create will allow transportation companies to provide personalized safety instruction for its drivers, which would subsequently reduce the number of road accidents and fatalities on Japan's roads. The application will include the development of optimal driver rosters and enhance training programs.
Part of the strategy between the companies is that Sompo will collect data from connected devices installed in Daiichi Kotsu's taxis. In addition to cameras that will capture images and telemetry tools that will record the journey data. It has been disclosed that biometric information relaying information on heart rates will also be collected from drivers that consent to the initiative - this biometric data will be recorded through wearable devices.
Accenture, which is headquartered in Ireland, will use all that information gathered to develop an algorithm that will automatically asses the accident risk for each driver by collating and analyzing images, biometrics and vehicle data. The vehicle data will range from everything such as speed and individual driving behavior.
Deep learning is recognized as one of the most advanced analytics techniques that has recently emerged - and will be integral to the data platform. A proof of concept experiment was conducted in March 2017, it acquired data from 100 drivers and taxis, the deep-learning algorithm created intelligence that identified crucial information related to safety, detecting issues such as drivers drowsiness and near-miss accidents from their heart-rate changes and driving behavior.
The head of Accenture Analytics at the Data Science Centre of Excellence, Takuya Kudo said that IoT technologies are presenting new obstacles that can only be solved by creating 'deep-learning algorithms'. Kudo said: "Rapid advances in IoT and autonomous driving technologies are bringing new challenges that can only be addressed by using new technologies such as this deep learning algorithm."
This innovative new partnership will help Accenture continue its ambition to create new intelligence by applying the latest analytics technologies to address industry challenges.