Iguazio,
the data science platform built for production and real-time machine
learning applications, today announced a strategic partnership with Faktion, a boutique, end-to-end Artificial Intelligence (AI) service provider for smart mobility technologies across Europe.
The
partnership enables both companies to provide AI software
infrastructure and services to smart mobility companies looking to
harness big data and create AI applications that make travel in cities
safer, greener, and more efficient.
The
two companies already have several joint European customers in the
Smart Mobility space, tackling challenges such as dynamic congestion
charges based on real-time data and detecting and acting upon driver
fatigue.
Congestion cost the U.K. nearly £8 billion in 2018.
This is the main problem Airvi, a startup which works with cities to
regulate and reduce traffic congestion and pollution according to data
delivered in real-time, is working to fix. Airvi works with cities to
regulate and reduce traffic congestion and pollution using data
delivered in real-time. Along with Faktion and using Iguazio's Data
Science Platform, it is creating virtual, dynamic zones that adapt to
fluid air and congestion patterns to better manage traffic. By
harnessing data at scale, from sources such as cell phones, weather
sensors and other diverse data sources, through Iguazio's platform, it
can recommend dynamic tariffs - that will deter drivers from entering
high traffic and pollution zones.
"Faktion's
deep industry experience and Machine Learning skill set, combined with
Iguazio's platform, has made our product viable by slashing costs and
time on getting AI to production. Without this partnership, we would
never have been able to harness and process data from so many sources,
to make accurate predictions in an efficient and reproducible way." said
Asher Bennett, CEO and founder of Airvi.
Another
joint customer - a Belgian transportation company - is working with the
Faktion and Iguazio teams to detect driver fatigue in real-time with
behavioral analysis. By factoring in diverse data such as time on the
road, time without a break, seasons, facial expressions and other
behavioral indicators, this smart mobility company uses AI to
proactively mitigate driver fatigue by alerting drivers when it's time
to take a break in order to prevent accidents before they occur.
"We
wanted to find a cloud-native, Kubernetes-based technology partner to
combine with our skills and expertise to offer organizations an
efficient, cost-effective way to build and deliver AI effectively to
production," said Niels Van Weereld, VP of Business Development &
Marketing at Faktion. "In the age of mega-cities, it is critical to make
use of AI in the cloud, and harness all relevant data points to create a
truly smart transportation system, reduce pollution and keep all of the
moving parts running smoothly, safely and effectively."
Iguazio
and Faktion are both partnered with Microsoft and their joint customers
are deployed on Azure cloud. Iguazio is fully integrated with Azure ML
Studio, Microsoft Azure's Event Hubs, and Azure IoT Hub, making it easy
for customers to develop AI models on Azure cloud and deploy them
rapidly with real-time performance at scale - on cloud or at the
intelligent edge. Faktion also works closely with Microsoft and is a
Gold-Certified partner.
"Traditionally,
smart mobility companies have struggled to leverage the promise of big
data to apply real-time technology solutions to urban and private
transport systems, in order to improve life for citizens and enable
cities to run more efficiently," said Asaf Somekh, Co-Founder and CEO at
Iguazio. "We are thrilled to partner with Faktion and strengthen our
partnership with Microsoft to together provide a framework for deriving
accurate, AI-driven predictions in real time - to mitigate unnecessary
congestion, accidents and pollution."