GOTHENBURG, Sweden: Volvo Cars has invested in CorrActions, an Israeli deep-tech brain monitoring AI start-up, which has developed a technology that the company believes will disrupt brain activity monitoring and may help the Swedish premium automaker understand drivers even better.
The AI-powered software built by CorrActions is said to be able to detect abnormalities in the cognitive state of drivers and passengers, based on micro muscle movements that reflect brain activity.
By using existing sensors in, for example, the steering wheel, such movements can hint at a variety of cognitive symptoms, including a driver being distracted, intoxicated or overly tired.
In a statement, Volvo Cars said the investment was made by its Tech Fund as part of a Series A funding round by CorrActions.
“With the Tech Fund, we aim to be a strategic partner of choice for exciting start-ups that can help boost our position as a tech leader in our industry,” said Alexander Petrofski, Head of the Volvo Cars Tech Fund.
“CorrActions fits the bill perfectly and focusses on a mission that is close to our heart: making cars and the people in and around them safer.”
Volvo Cars said CorrActions had piqued its interest because "they clearly try to solve the same issues as our safety engineers."
"Our decades of research teach us that distraction and tiredness are facts of life, and that you may not always be at your best when driving, for whatever reason. And in traffic, it takes only a few seconds for the unthinkable to happen," said the automaker.
