Distracted driving is one of the leading causes of accidents and why auto insurance premiums are involved. It is projected to increase by 2025.. For commercial vessels; This is a nightmare. But for California-based startup Netradyne, it's a breeze.
Netradyne Supports fleet owners including Famous like Amazon.With AI-enabled dash cameras that collect vehicle data and videos to reduce accidents by around 50%, according to individual companies. The devices, equipped with inside and outside face-to-face cameras, use edge computers to reward drivers if they are distracted or drive dangerously.
Last reported on TechCrunch. Netradyne's $150 million Series C By 2021, Since then, the company has expanded beyond North America and India to Germany, UK Expanded to Australia and New Zealand. In the coming months, Ireland and Japan to further that progress. Netradyne has raised a $90 million Series D round led by Point72 Private Investments with participation from Qualcomm Ventures and Pavilion Capital at a pre-funding value of $1.35 billion.
With big expansion comes big data. Over the years, Netradyne has collected 18 billion miles worth of data; The company says it has helped improve the product with 99% accuracy of product alerts and 25 million compliance scores.
In addition to global expansion; The new capital will go towards increasing product development and go-to-market investments.
Today, Fleets can access Netradyne's Safety Manager Assistant, an AI-powered co-pilot that connects to the company's portal in natural language and uses generative AI to drive conversations about data and insights. Avneesh Agrawal, co-founder and CEO of Netradyne, told TechCrunch that the company will invest more in next-generation AI and add additional use cases and an “agent approach” to its co-pilot.
Agrawal noted that Netradyne will use its big data to develop basic driving models with a focus on cornering driving scenarios to advance autonomous driving technology.
“We have rich visual data that analyzes every aspect of the road and reads driving behavior and different road markings. No one in the autonomous industry has data like this,” Agrawal said. “Our goal now is to train a driving model to identify these extreme events using next-generation AI.”
He said it's not Netradyne's intention to develop its own AV technology, but to collaborate with others and offer the startup information and insights.
Netradyne's customers include online retail; food and beverage; oil and natural gas; utilities, Operating fleets are spread across the construction industry and more. The startup provides two main products. The first is street-facing in an easy-to-install kit. A four-view dash cam that collects footage from the driver's face and two side-window cameras. It captures driver behavior, reduces blind spots and provides evidence of an accident. The second camera is a dual-view camera that faces the road and the driver.
Fleet owners who need more visibility can use the Hub-X add-on, an extension of the dashcam that provides up to four additional cameras to be positioned wherever needed, such as facing the back of the bus.
The startup also offers a driver monitoring solution that can be incorporated into the Quad Camera to detect drowsy driving behaviors using night-time detection and a dedicated sensor that can be seen by most sunglasses, according to the company.
In response to concerns about driver privacy; Agrawal said Netradyne is GDPR compliant and never supplies drivers' personal information to third parties.
“Investing in Netradyne is a belief in safer roads and supporting professional drivers,” said Sri Chandrasekar, Managing Partner, Point72 Private Investments. “Since our initial investment in 2018, we've seen Netradyne's impressive growth and believe their technology is well-positioned to not only empower fleet managers, but also promote a culture of safe driving.”
Agrawal said Netradyne has seen 65% growth in the last 12 months and expects to turn a net profit next year.
This article has been updated to reflect Netradyne's new value.