Founded in October 2013 in Tokyo, Japan, Smart Drive is a startup that provides collection, analysis and solutions of vehicle driving data. Smart Drive currently employs about 50 people who are mainly software engineers and data experts. Smart Drive has partnered with Sumitomo Mitsui, Sony and other companies and works with factories to manufacture vehicle driving data collection terminal devices. Smart Drive's main customers are companies that make more use of commercial vehicles including logistic companies, sales companies and gas companies. Smart Drive has sold more than 20,000 terminal devices.
Mr. Kitagawa, founder and CEO of Smart Drive, holds a master's degree from Tokyo University in Japan and studied finance in Boston. Mr. Kitagawa used his school time to research and analyze the utilization of traffic data, in which he had a strong interest. After graduation, Mr. Kitagawa founded Smart Drive to collect and analyze vehicle data with the hope of reforming the automotive industry through car networking technology.
Smart Drive received 660 million yen financing from Anri, a Japanese venture capital fund in 2015. To date, Smart Drive has completed 1 billion Japanese yen (about 9 million dollars) in series B round financing with a total financing amount of US$15 million. Its shareholders include Japanese government funds, and AXA General Insurance.
Product Introduction
Smart Drive collects vehicle data through hardware devices installed in the vehicle and feeds it back to the user's mobile app, allowing the user to visualize the vehicle monitoring via their mobile phone.
Smart Drive's hardware includes On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) system equipment and car cigarette point device, from which the user can choose according to different models. Smart Drive can collect many types of data including vehicle trajectory, speed, acceleration, braking, turning angle and many other types of data. Compared to car cigarette point device, Smart Drive's OBD device can extract more detailed vehicle information directly from inside the vehicle. OBD device can access more than 50 types of data, while car cigarette point device can access 15 types of data.
Smart Drive collects and tracks vehicle driving data through wireless devices connected to the vehicle and wirelessly transmits the data. Smart Drive embeds Sierra Wireless's cellular link devices and global single-satellite positioning devices into terminals to enable the worldwide positioning of terminal devices.
Smart Drive analyzes these data and feeds back the results to users. Through the collection and analysis of these data, Smart Drive can provide solutions for traffic, vehicles and users, including traffic information such as vehicle fuel consumption analysis, driving diagnosis and traffic jam identification. Smart Drive has been accredited by the Japanese MIC, a government agency that controls radio frequency (RF) equipment in Japan.
Business Model
According to Smart Drive, the vehicle's driving data itself is of no value, but after a proper analysis of the data, it is possible to propose solutions to practical problems based on the data and ultimately, to produce real value. Smart Drive's data can be used for all aspects of vehicle operation, including vehicle insurance, leasing, transaction, post-maintenance and car networking. Currently, Smart Drive primarily provides enterprise users with vehicle management and data analysis services. Smart Drive's major customers include Seino Transportation, the largest transportation company in Japan, AXA Insurance, Tokyo Gas Company and others.
1) Vehicle Management
Smart Drive provides a vehicle management service called DriveOps for companies that use more vehicles such as logistics companies, sales companies, and truck companies. DriveOps collects driving data, operating conditions, and other data of all company vehicles through on-board equipment. DriveOps organizes the data and presents it to the company through its app so that the company can manage and allocate its own vehicles and understand the drivers' driving behaviors, driving routes and so on. With DriveOps, companies can keep track of vehicle dynamics in real time and effectively control vehicle operating costs.
DriveOps can save 80 percent of the cost compared to traditional vehicle management company services. DriveOps has a minimum service fee of 1480 yen (about 85 Chinese yuan) per month and a very low initial installation cost. Its terminal devices can be installed on any types of vehicles without additional costs. In addition, DriveOps' services are based on the Smart Drive cloud and do not require additional IT infrastructure. After the automatic collection, storage and analysis of data, companies can view vehicle dynamics at any time. Moreover, DriveOps can analyze and grade driving behaviors including acceleration, braking and idling of drivers in all vehicles, helping companies reduce vehicles' operating costs by improving the drivers' driving habits.
2) UBI Auto Insurance
Compared to auto insurance in China, the cost of auto insurance in Japan has a very close relationship with the driver's actual situation. Insurance companies can adjust the cost of auto insurance according to the driver's driving habits and vehicle usage.
Smart Drive provides vehicle data services for auto insurance companies. While auto insurance customers use Smart Drive's devices in their cars, auto insurance companies can get detailed information about their cars and driving habits of their users, allowing them to conduct more accurate risk assessments, provide cheaper insurance plans and be able to plan personalized follow-up auto insurance services for the users. AXA Insurance currently offers UBI Auto Insurance services to its customers using Smart Drive.
3) Public Service
Since the summer of 2017, Smart Drive began to sell its highly-publicized traffic data services to local government, such as providing big data services to local government agencies in Tokyo, helping government agencies forecast traffic data and providing warnings against congested roads and dangerous areas.
Future Prospects
Smart Drive is the first platform in Japan that offers a full range of car networking services. An advantage over other companies that offer solutions related to driving behaviors is that Smart Drive serves companies and individuals in all types of vehicles. Mr. Kitagawa, CEO of Smart Drive, believes that all companies and individuals that need to manage their vehicles need to know the vehicle data and are all potential customers of Smart Drive.
For individual users, Smart Drive can provide services including UBI Auto Insurance, vehicle mortgage loans, roadside assistance, vehicle tracking and other services. For business users, Smart Drive provides driving habit ratings, real-time vehicle alerts, vehicle cost management, GIS (geographic information system), TMS / WMS (transport management system / warehouse management system) and other services. For the public transportation sector, Smart Drive offers services including traffic forecasting, danger zone alerting and more. Through the data sources obtained by its own terminal devices and external data (including personal data in household Internet of things, sales data of enterprises, weather data and traffic signal data of public transportation, and vehicle maintenance records), Smart Drive can provide users with personalized solutions for all types of vehicles.
Smart Drive is also developing a smart phone driving recorder function that records driving data through in-vehicle cameras and compares real-time video data with a large amount of video data using video analysis and search functions to provide vehicle traffic accident records and recordings of dangerous driving.
