Agero, a provider of software enabled vehicle and driver safety services has commenced testing of mobile technology designed to improve driver safety in light of an ongoing spike in traffic fatalities. Discussed on stage at AWS re:Invent and built on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud, Agero’s mobile telematics platform is designed to detect severe crashes at scale for faster response.
The initial phase, a mobile app called MileUp that gamifies driving data for US motorists, began its preview by Agero for iPhone and Android devices during re:Invent.
“The US is experiencing an alarming spike in traffic fatalities for the first time in decades,” commented Christina DeRosa, Chief Product & Marketing Officer, Agero.
“Shaving minutes off emergency response can save thousands of these lives. Our use of AWS has been critical in our ability to rapidly and effectively build, test and soon deliver a solution that hopes to do just that at scale,” she added.
Considerable reduction in notification time
In 2015, the US reportedly had the highest one-year percentage increase in traffic deaths in 50 years, and that trend is believed to be getting worse in 2016. Agero aims to curtail this problem through real time accident detection and response, with the goal of reducing the average emergency medical services (EMS) notification time from 3-7 minutes to less than 30 seconds, saving up to 3,000 lives a year.
The company claims to have helped pioneer roadside assistance, connected vehicle services, accident claims submission for companies ranging from Ford, Volkswagen Group of America and Toyota, to Progressive and USAA.
MileUp leveraging AWS services
MileUp, being previewed now and scheduled for release in January 2017, is a free app that rewards people for sharing driving data as part of an extensive real world beta test of Agero’s crash detection algorithms. Agero was able to rapidly build the gamification engine in MileUp from scratch using AWS. The company also uses the new Amazon Pinpoint capability for MileUp’s campaign management, user segmentation, lifecycle and points notifications.
“Amazon Pinpoint helps customers understand their own customers’ behavior, define who to target, determine what messages to send, schedule the best time to deliver the message, and then track the results of their campaign. As an early user, Agero has been able to use the technology in a highly complex use case such as the cloud-based mobile accident detection through MileUp and for a great cause,” said Simon Poile, General Manager, AWS Messaging and Targeting, Amazon Web Services.
Agero’s crash detection algorithms are cloud-based and leverage several AWS services, including: Amazon Cognito for authorization, Amazon Aurora for persistence, AWS Lambda for compute, Amazon Pinpoint for campaign management and notifications, the API gateway for feature access, and a host of other AWS services to scale, manage and monitor the solution.
“The AWS solution architects and the Amazon Pinpoint team have helped in guiding and supporting our development effort,” said Raj Behara, Senior Director, Digital Products and Platforms, Agero.
“When you’re dealing with a problem that’s as critical and universal as driver safety, it’s important to have a solution that can handle the scale of the issue and yet still allow us to move quickly. That’s the type of capability AWS has given us.” Behara added.
A preview of MileUp is now available in the App Store and on Google Play in the US only. The MileUp rewards program is scheduled to run for a limited time.