With inflation sparking an increase in the cost of repairs, labor and claims, fees for insurance are similarly spiking across the board. Car insurance premiums rose 13.7% nationally over the past year, according to a study from Bankrate.com. Home insurance, meanwhile, climbed 12.1% year-on-year, Policygenius found. But Jonathan Matus argues that it doesn't have to be that way. He's the founder of Fairmatic, a company that's applying AI to -- at least according to him -- reduce risk in the car insurance industry.

The connected vehicle is reshaping our view of mobility and transportation. The goal is how rapidly companies can get the information to fleet managers, deploy predictive analytics and machine learning to report fast, and prevent or save the costs of the downtime. The industry is fast changing from the regular telematics used for data collection to a single gateway to provide connectivity to all the peripherals of the vehicle. The Connected Vehicle can communicate with the cloud and/or the transport infrastructure, and broadcast relevant information (e.g. Use cases for this data include real-time congestion reporting and forecasting based on GPS traces.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 14, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zendrive, a mission-driven company using data and analytics to make roads safer and insurance fairer, today announced John Kramer as Director of Insurance Sales. He brings with him nearly 20 years of insurance experience in underwriting, usage-based insurance, product management, and connected car technology. "Zendrive is an established leader in driving analytics and research, with the world's largest driving data set of over 180 billion miles," said John Kramer. "The company is thinking critically about how to apply its unique, predictive telematics factors and innovative technology solutions to the insurance industry. I'm proud to join such a passionate team powering a modern, data-driven future alongside our insurance provider partners."

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.

Connected car startups raked in over $1 billion in funding last year, even though most consumers have yet to hear the term, connected car. With more than 1,700 autotech startups now in the game, competition is ramping up at all levels of the automotive IoT ecosystem. From automotive cyber security solutions providers to connected head-up display companies, new autotechs are coming online almost daily. Growth and sustainability of the connected car market demands a symbiotic relationship between automakers and 3rd-party tech providers.Without major automakers, there is no market for autotech products. With 250 million connected vehicles projected to be on the road by 2020, there's plenty of opportunity for automakers, and for the connected car startup.

Self-driving cars continued to make headlines recently. Google (Waymo) opened its early rider program in Phoenix, Arizona, to "hundreds" of residents "with diverse backgrounds and transportation needs." Baidu open sourced its self-driving technology and said it's on track to deliver self-driving cars by the end of 2020. And documents obtained by Business Insider and the Wall Street Journal revealed Apple has hired former NASA employees, robotics experts and ex-Tesla staffers to form part of its driverless car teams. The news came during the National Safety Council's Distracted Driving Awareness month.