Netradyne raises $90M to encourage safer driving with AI dashcams – News

Netradyne Inc., a startup that’s using artificial intelligence and edge computing to try and improve driver safety, said today it has raised $90 million in late-stage funding.

Point72 Private Investments led the Series D round, with participation from Qualcomm Ventures and Pavilion Capital.

The startup’s driver safety technology is mainly targeted at companies running fleets of vehicles, including big names such as Amazon.com Inc. It’s the designer of an AI-enabled dashcam that collects vehicle data and video to try to improve driver safety, and it claims that it can reduce the frequency of accidents by about 50% compared with vehicles that don’t have its technology installed.

Its AI-powered dashcams have two cameras — one facing inward and one facing outward – and they’re paired with edge computing sensors that can detect when drivers are distracted or driving dangerously, and warn them about it. Uniquely, it also strives to reward drivers for good behavior.

Netradyne’s products include a quad-view dashcam that collects footage from the road- and driver-facing cameras, as well as two additional cameras on the sides of the vehicle. These are used to capture drivers’ behavior, reduce blind spots and record evidence in the case of an accident.

In addition, the company offers an add-on called Hub-X, which is an extension to the dashcam that allows for up to four extra cameras to be placed anywhere in the vehicle. For instance, a customer might want to place cameras at different locations in a bus.

Its second product is a driver monitoring system that can be integrated with the quad-view dashcam. It uses a number of sensors to detect when the vehicle’s driver is drowsy.

Netradyne calls the complete system Driver•i, and says it’s the only driver safety product in the world that rewards drivers who behave positively. By reinforcing good driving habits, the startup says, it can help fleets reduce accidents, increase driver retention, lower their insurance costs and achieve better overall fleet performance.

Other benefits of Driver•i include being able to protect fleet vehicle drivers from false claims, as well as simplified compliance management, the startup says.

The company last raised money in 2021 when it closed on a $150 million Series C round of funding, and since then it has expanded from the U.S. and India into markets such as Australia, Germany, New Zealand and the U.K. During that time, it has accumulated a vast trove of data covering more than 18 billion miles of driving behavior, and it has used this information to boost the accuracy of its Driver•i system’s alerts to an impressive 99%.

With today’s funding, Netradyne wants to expand into new markets including Ireland and Japan, and it will also develop more AI systems.

In an interview with News, Netradyne co-founder and Chief Executive Avneesh Agrawal said he’s interested in using the company’s proprietary data to develop new foundational models that can enhance autonomous driving systems. It won’t create its own driver assistance tech, but rather partner with companies that specialize in this area.

Agrawal said Netradyne’s advantage is that no one else in the autonomous driving industry has access to the countless hours of driver behavior video data it has collected. “Our objective now is to train a driving model using generative AI to identify new edge cases,” he said.

Point72 Private Investments Managing Partner Sri Chandrasekar said he’s investing in the startup because he wants to help make the roads safer and support professional drivers. “Since our initial investment in 2018, we’ve witnessed Netradyne’s impressive growth and believe its technology is well-positioned not only to empower fleet managers but also foster a culture of safe driving,” he said.

Images: Netradyne