Mind Foundry, an artificial intelligence startup vying to help insurers decide which drivers should be covered, has raised $22 million in funding, the latest sign of growing demand to deploy AI in critical sectors where there's little room for error. The startup's AI tools are being used to detect cognitive decline in older drivers in Japan to aid Asian insurance giant, Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Co., in predicting and preventing accidents. Aioi invested in the funding round along with Parkwalk Advisors and the University of Oxford, said Brian Mullins, Mind Foundry's chief executive officer. The Series B round brings the startup's total funding to $44 million. Traditionally, insurers have relied heavily on details such as the type of car and the driver's age to predict who is more likely to be involved in serious accidents -- and to set insurance premiums.

When Honda Motor Co. launched the latest version of its N-Box a year ago, it promoted features on the pint-sized minicar such as error-detecting pedals, automatic emergency braking and moveable seats, part of a push to market the vehicle to young families. But a drastically different demographic has made the N-Box the country's best-selling passenger vehicle: roughly half the owners of the most recent model are 50 or older. Automakers had hoped high-tech options would attract younger buyers to kei cars (minicars) even as the number of Japanese drivers under 30 has slid nearly 40 percent since 2001. Instead, with a price tag starting around ¥850,000 and low ownership taxes, minicars have gained a more loyal following among the rapidly growing population of elderly Japanese, many of whom are on fixed incomes. "After their children are grown and leave home, more people are looking to downsize from larger family cars to more compact ones," said Kiminori Murano, managing director at Tortoise, a dealership specializing in minicars in Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Drivers over 65 were responsible for 965 deadly accidents across Japan -- more than a quarter of the total -- in 2016, according to the National Police Agency. In one of the most shocking cases, an 87-year-old crashed his truck into a group of schoolchildren, killing a 6-year-old and injuring others, prompting demands for action on the issue. In a tranquil countryside setting outside the town of Kanuma, Tochigi Prefecture, on a track surrounded by rice paddies and mountains, elderly drivers are taking public safety into their own hands and completing refresher courses behind the wheel. Emiko Takahashi, a 73-year-old taking the course, admitted she had "no confidence" in her driving as she got older. "That's why I came here," she said, adding that she has no choice but to drive her ailing husband, seven years her senior, to a hospital every day.