Waycare raises $7.25 million to improve city traffic using AI and big data

Big data and machine learning have emerged as fundamental tools for companies and cities looking to unlock insights into people and places, enabled by the myriad connected devices that now permeate society. The likes of PredictHQ leverage data from global events to help companies like Uber and airlines forecast demand, while fellow San Francisco startup Streetlight Data aggregates mobile app data to help cities measure the flow of traffic. In a similar vein, Israeli startup Waycare has been setting out to help city planners make better-informed traffic-management decisions. It does so by tapping historical and real-time data inputs from connected cars, telematics, roadside cameras, fleet management platforms, public transit services, construction projects, and even weather forecasts to build a more complete picture of what's happening on a city's thoroughfares. Individually, these various data sets can do little to help municipalities make planning decisions, but the sum -- as the saying goes -- is far greater than its parts.