Shift Magazine - June 3, 2019 - 9

CONSUMERS

further: MDGo uses vehicle data to measure the physical forces exerted upon
occupants during a car crash and then
runs that data through artificial intelligence algorithms to predict the severity
of injuries in real time.
Within nine seconds of a crash, the
company can send medical reports to
hospitals and insurance companies. Such
information can help first responders
decide what sort of ambulance to dispatch or which trauma centers should be
considered.
Once patients arrive at hospitals, data
can paint a picture of the severity of the
crash and relay information on injuries
sustained in similar crashes. That may
help catch injuries that are tricky to diagnose without an indicator to look for them
in the first place.
"The problem in medicine is that when
you don't know what you are looking
for, you don't find it," said Itay Bengad,
founder of MDGo and a doctor. "So our
job here is to allow the vehicle to speak
my language, a physician's language."
Sometimes, the information can be
used immediately in emergency rooms.
Bowel perforations, for example, are difficult to detect via CT scans, according to
Bengad. They can be easily survivable if
caught early, he said. But too often, physicians don't know to look for them until
hours later, when patients are suffering

GM's Marketplace in-dash app allows
users to make purchases from the car.

from sepsis and near death.
In a connected world, doctors might
hold a report that suggests 77 percent
of occupants from similar-profile crashes
suffer bowel perforations. Doctors could
have that knowledge before crash victims even arrive in their ER.
Other times, data can help provide
insights years after crashes.
"Sometimes, people suffer pain in their
neck for two years after a crash," Bengad
said. "No one knew that 80 G's of force
had been applied to their C1 vertebrae."
MDGo is running a pilot in Israel using
data from 270,000 vehicles. It has completed a proof of concept with an insurance company that had an accuracy rate
of 87 percent. It is working with two automakers on similar proofs of concept and
says it has finalized a strategic investment
from one.

WHEN TO SHARE

Ninety-two percent of connected-car
owners said they're interested in sharing
personal data for these sorts of potential lifesaving scenarios, according to the
Otonomo survey.
Whether consumers are willing to
share such data to contribute to smart
city initiatives, which may lead to a
greater good in the realm of traffic safety,
remains a more nuanced question.
Waycare, another Israeli startup, has

shown that crashes can become less frequent when data is shared. The company
combines anonymized in-vehicle data on
speed and location with other information - from historical traffic patterns and
traffic flow to weather conditions.
With its machine learning algorithms,
the company can predict traffic hot spots
as much as two hours ahead of time.
With this information, cities can alert drivers via dynamic-message signs, increase
law enforcement traffic patrols and even
dispatch emergency services to an area
where a crash is likely to occur. But it
takes coordination.
"We have systems [in most cities]
that are siloed and not communicating
with each other, between police and
public works and traffic management,"
said Paul-Matthew Zamsky, head of
strategic partnerships at Waycare.
"There's no correlation on how things
might impact one another until you combine it."
A Waycare pilot project conducted
in 2018 along with the Regional
Transportation Commission of Southern
Nevada reaped a 17 percent reduction in traffic crashes along a portion of
Interstate 15.
That's a stark difference from the
broader U.S. trend of increases in traffic
crashes and road deaths. Since reaching
a modern-day low of 32,479 deaths in
2011, according to NHTSA , the annual
traffic fatality rate has risen at the fastest pace since the early 1960s. And
pedestrian deaths have reached quarter-century highs, totaling 6,277 in 2018,
according to Governors Highway Safety
Association estimates.
Self-driving cars are often viewed as
the technological remedy for this roadway carnage. They hold the promise of
a safer future. But over the last year, the
industry has widely acknowledged that
fully autonomous vehicles remain years
away from deployment, and even longer
from meaningful fleet penetration.
Data might hold similar safety promises - and it may deliver a whole lot
sooner. ■
june 2019 * shift

Shift Magazine - June 3, 2019

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