(Ride Vision co-founders CEO Uri Lavi (leftO)and CTO Lior Cohen. Image source: Ride Vision.)

Sara Assicurazioni, one of Italy’s leading insurers for motorcycles, has partnered with Ride Vision, an Israeli startup creator of computer vision and neural network-based Collision Aversion Technology to sense, predict, and warn riders of threats on the road. The partnership aims to address to reduce the frequency and severity of accidents involving motorcyclists—who are 28 times likely to die in an accident than a car occupant.

Through the partnership, qualified motorcyclists insured by Sara Assicurazioni are eligible for significant discount on their yearly premium when they retrofit their vehicles with Ride Vision’s system. This offer will take effect next year when Ride Vision’s system officially enters the Italian market.

Sara Assicurazioni seeks to address an appetite to reduce accidents that are not only costly in terms of lives and human suffering, but also financially costly to governments and in terms of insurance losses. “Road safety has always been our main focus, and we’re now glad to start addressing the area of motorbikes where chances for an accident are higher,” comments Alberto Tosti, General Manager, Sara Assicurazioni. “This is why we’re developing a promotional offer for Ride Vision retrofitted bikes.”

Given the size of the auto insurance market, insurers have focused on providing solutions for cars, but the high frequency of motorcycle accidents has insurers turning to technology solutions to address this smaller but more risky segment of drivers. A survey by ACI-Istat revealed that 41,414 motorcycle accidents in Italy resulted in 755 fatalities and 49,447 injuries in 2018 alone.

“Our collaboration addresses an untreated segment of two-wheeler commuters and fleet operators to promote road safety,” comments Uri Lavi, CEO & Co-founder, Ride Vision. “We’re confident that Ride Vision and Sara’s agreement will bring innovation to an often-overlooked community and is a crucial step forward to reduce accidents”

Ride Vision-Sara characterizes its collaboration with Sara Assicurazione as unique because it is the first of its kind to exclusively target this especially risky segment of the automotive insurance space. Ride Vision claims to be the first vehicular predictive system specifically tailored to motorcycles to enter the market. FEMA’s most recently available Motorcycle Safety and Accident report, reports that with over 6,500,000 motorcycles, Italy has the largest number of motorcycles on the road of any EU country.

Recognizing Threats Without Disturbing Rider’s Focus

Ride Vision describes its Collision Aversion Technology (CAT) solution as a fusion of artificial intelligence (neural networks) and computer vision designed utilizing standard cameras as visual sensors. CAT recognizes and analyzes relevant threats without disturbing the rider’s critical focus, according to the vendor. Ride Vision’s Advanced Rider Assistance System also operates as a dashcam, allowing bikers and 2-wheeler fleet operators to maintain evidence recording in case of an accident. Ride Vision’s CAT will be available in Italy in early 2020 through the vendor’s official distributor Autobynet SpA.

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