Honda Motor Co. is integrating artificial intelligence into its vehicles to warn drivers of imminent traffic hazards and help them avoid accidents caused by human error, as the automaker aims to meet its target of zero fatalities by 2050. Honda's AI-powered driver assistance technology -- unveiled Thursday in what the firm says is a world first -- checks a driver's movements and health using a monitoring camera and sensors. The No. 2 Japanese automaker by volume said it is planning to put the technology, including functionality that alerts against risks by tightening the driver's seatbelt or emitting audible warnings, into its vehicles in the latter half of the 2020s. Domestic automakers are stepping up their development of safety technologies, such as automatic braking systems, at a time when the country's population is rapidly aging. The auto industry has also seen increased competition to develop internet-connected cars.

More than 1,50,000 people are killed in road collisions each year in India, which amounts to 400 deaths per day.

Pankaj Risbood: We have a 20-people data science team right now, which is growing and expanding all the time. We look for people with core statistics and machine learning background, people who have done either a Master's or PhD in Deep Learning, statistics, artificial intelligence, and similar domains. We certainly look for people with strong coding abilities because ultimately it's a product, it's not research. So, being able to deliver the product is important going through the rigours of production deployment. And above everything, we look for people who are curious.

Calculating insurance premiums is a challenging task for insurers, as they often have limited information upon which to base risk assessments. The period a driver has held a license and their type of car have never been reliable indicators of safety; and reports insurers receive about accidents are subjective and may be written sometime after the event. With telematics, insurers can understand in real-time where the driver is, and help the driver improve his or her behaviour, says Fabio Sbianchi, CEO and founder at Octo Telematics. Octo is a major provider of telematics and data analytics solutions for the auto insurance industry, and a pioneer of the insurance telematics industry. "We help insurance companies move from static data to dynamic data," says Sbianchi, who spoke at the the Analytics Experience conference in Milan, a business technology conference organised by SAS.

Fully autonomous cars will make Britain's roads safer, according to a pioneer of driverless vehicles. Professor Paul Newman, who was behind the UK's first and only self-driving car on public roads, said that the ability to share data between robots was a powerful tool that should be embraced. Over the last five years autonomous technology has developed rapidly, with the likes of Google and traditional motor manufacturers designing driverless cars. Last year Ocado trialled in London the delivery of food to customers with a self-driving truck, which was developed by Oxford-based Oxbotica, a company co-founded by Prof Newman. Other semi-autonomous technology is being pioneered in cars with features such as Tesla's Autopilot and BMW's traffic jam assistant.

Fully autonomous cars will make Britain's roads safer, according to a pioneer of driverless vehicles. Professor Paul Newman, who was behind the UK's first and only self-driving car on public roads, said that the ability to share data between robots was a powerful tool that should be embraced. Over the last five years autonomous technology has developed rapidly, with the likes of Google and traditional motor manufacturers designing driverless cars. Last year Ocado trialled in London the delivery of food to customers with a self-driving truck, which was developed by Oxford-based Oxbotica, a company co-founded by Prof Newman. Other semi-autonomous technology is being pioneered in cars with features such as Tesla's Autopilot and BMW's traffic jam assistant.

But before autonomous cars can transform modern life, cities will have to transform themselves. Smart cities will be the linchpins of the autonomous age -- deploying the digital infrastructure necessary to connect cars to vital information, reduce traffic congestion and make roads safer. "The cities of the future are going to require intricate and complicated management systems," said Eran Shir, CEO and cofounder of Tel Aviv based Nexar, which announced today on closing $30 million in series B funding. The company is building a vehicle-to-vehicle network and collect real-time information about road conditions, traffic, infrastructure problems, crashes and road hazards. "Real-time information is crucial for cities that want to take control of their smart city initiatives, and Nexar has crowdsourced a database of over 100 million driven miles," Shir said.