Yehuda Holtzman serves because the CEO of Cipia. The corporate makes a speciality of picture processing and AI, with intensive experience in analysis, implementation, and optimization of algorithms for embedded platforms and the in-car automotive business. Cipia is headquartered in Israel, with international places of work in america and China.
Yehuda brings over 25 years of enterprise, technological and managerial expertise as a CEO of expertise and communications firms to steer Cipia. In his most up-to-date function, Holtzman served as CEO of On Monitor Improvements Ltd. (OTI), a worldwide supplier of close to discipline communication (NFC) and cashless cost options. In prior years he served as CEO of Mobilogy, overseeing its sale to the American ESW Capital fund. Yehuda was additionally a co-founder of the software program firm ExploreGate, the place he served as CEO from 2012 to 2016, in addition to co-founder of MobileAccess, the place he served as President of the corporate by way of its acquisition by Corning Included In 2011. Yehuda has a grasp’s diploma in administration from Ben-Gurion College and a bachelor’s diploma in electronics engineering from the College of Brighton in England.
Are you able to elaborate on Cipia’s imaginative and prescient for the way forward for in-cabin sensing options and the way you propose to attain it?
Cipia’s long-term imaginative and prescient leverages the alternatives and enterprise fashions created by every step on the best way to totally autonomous automobiles. Specifically, progresses by way of three foremost levels:
First, we’re targeted on decreasing accidents by monitoring the driving force and elevating the alarm if they’re drained or distracted. Subsequent, we’ll transfer to semi-autonomous automobiles, the place our programs change into much more essential as drivers might have to rapidly take again management of the car. Lastly, in totally autonomous automobiles, we’ll shift to enhancing the in-car expertise by way of expertise that acknowledges the automobile’s occupants and remembers their preferences.
How has your earlier expertise at OTI and different tech firms ready you on your function at Cipia, and what are the largest challenges you’ve confronted since changing into CEO of Cipia?
My expertise managing a number of progress firms has well-prepared me to steer Cipia, particularly throughout this vital part within the firm’s lifecycle. I’m notably conversant in the challenges and alternatives that include this stage. The twin concentrate on each increasing the corporate and establishing a sustainable progress technique is important. For example, since I joined Cipia, now we have elevated our gross margin whereas greater than doubling the variety of automotive producers amongst our prospects. Our aim – and our greatest problem – is to be the chief in our discipline, and certainly one of our key benefits on this technology-driven market is Cipia’s intensive expertise with pc imaginative and prescient and AI. The chance to use my experience in a market section targeted on saving lives makes my work particularly significant.
How does Cipia’s expertise differentiate itself from different driver and occupancy monitoring programs available on the market?
Cipia’s pc imaginative and prescient AI is constructed on intensive expertise with edge processing, which has lean {hardware} necessities as a constraint from the design part. This implies our algorithms are optimized to require fewer {hardware} sources, enabling deployment in programs that in the end value much less to our prospects and allow wider deployment.
Are you able to clarify some great benefits of lean edge processing in Cipia’s options?
The benefit of lean edge processing is twofold. First, it facilitates decrease system prices since fewer {hardware} sources are required. Second, it brings extra capabilities to the sting, that means that extra processing can occur regionally, guaranteeing no connectivity is required, and the info doesn’t must be transmitted elsewhere for processing. On the planet of automotive security programs, this can be a exhausting requirement. It permits low latency, security, and safety.
With distracted driving being a number one reason behind accidents, how efficient are Cipia’s options in decreasing such incidents?
Very.
To provide only one instance of the info we’ve seen, in line with the director of transportation at a serious beverage firm, earlier than utilizing Cipia, an amazing 86% of their accidents have been attributed to human error. This firm applied Cipia’s answer designed for fleets and noticed a 90% discount in cellphone use whereas driving and a 70% lower in accidents.
How does Cipia guarantee its applied sciences adjust to the most recent GSR and Euro NCAP necessities?
Cipia employs complete validation strategies, together with on-track and on-road testing of its choices, to make sure full compliance with regulatory and security normal necessities. Accumulating the required information in line with the varied protocols takes time and sources, however that’s a part of the profit a long-time supplier of driver monitoring programs affords. We’re additionally a member of the Euro NCAP tier 2 DMS suppliers workgroup and are very pleased with our contribution to security by way of this necessary work.
Past security, what are some potential functions of Cipia’s AI expertise that would improve the driving expertise?
Cipia’s underlying software program permits custom-made experiences for drivers and passengers. Among the options automobile producers can implement with Cipia embody mouth monitoring for voice instructions, guaranteeing the car responds solely to the driving force. Infotainment interplay detection, which tailors car controls based mostly on which person is interacting.
Driver’s gaze detection would stop distractions by pausing video content material when the driving force is peeking on the display screen. These are only a few of the handfuls of options enabled by pc imaginative and prescient AI that may improve the driving expertise.
How does Cipia make sure the privateness and safety of the info processed by its in-cabin sensing options?
Cipia’s embedded options are totally non-public and safe. Our options analyze the video stream in real-time, translating it to metadata. No photographs are saved, recorded, or despatched from the system. For TSPs and Fleets, the shopper might select whether or not to obtain text-based alerts solely or embody video snippets earlier than and after an occasion. Underneath each instances, Cipia doesn’t obtain or retailer video information of any variety.
What developments do you foresee within the automotive AI and pc imaginative and prescient business over the subsequent decade?
Wanting ahead, I imagine the business will proceed to concentrate on security, however we’ll additionally see a shift in the direction of enhancing the general in-car expertise. This might embody monitoring very important indicators, detecting if a driver is below the affect (even when they are not actively driving), and enhancing baby security options like detecting if a toddler has been left within the automobile.
We’re additionally prone to see extra personalization, with AI programs studying particular person behaviors and preferences to create an optimum surroundings for every person. Nonetheless, it is necessary to notice that the business continues to be exploring these potentialities, and nobody is aware of precisely what is going to work greatest.
A serious development we’re seeing is a shift in automobile producers’ enterprise fashions. They’re transferring away from merely promoting a car to promoting a set of options and companies on a recurring foundation. That is much like how the cell phone business developed from promoting units for making calls to promoting platforms for apps and companies. This shift presents new alternatives and challenges for firms like Cipia as we work to offer worth on this altering panorama.
Thanks for the nice interview, readers who want to study extra ought to go to Cipia.
