Cambridge Mobile Telematics

Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT) is a technology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, focused on developing telematics solutions to enhance road safety through technology and data analytics.^[1][2][3][4] Founded in 2010 by Hari Balakrishnan,^[5][6] Samuel Madden, and William Powers,^{[7][8][9][10]} CMT originated as a spin-out from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).^[11][12][13]

CMT was established to create safe and sustainable global mobility with telematics.^[14] Its DriveWell Fusion Platform collects sensor data from smartphones, IoT devices, connected vehicles, and third-party devices and uses signal processing and artificial intelligence to transform it into driving insights. The DriveWell Fusion Platform provides drivers with insights into their driving habits, including speed, acceleration patterns, phone distraction, and collisions. The platform also detects car crashes and can alert emergency services.^[11][15] The company runs telematics programs in over 25 countries.

In 2018, CMT received an investment of $500 million from the SoftBank Vision Fund, supporting its expansion and innovation in telematics.^{[16][17][18][19][20][21]}

The company partners with auto insurers, automakers, gig economy companies, wireless companies, home security companies, commercial fleets, the public sector, and across the mobility ecosystem. Within insurance, CMT has partnered with 23 of the top 25 North American auto insurers, such as State Farm,^[22] Progressive,^[23] USAA,^[24] Liberty Mutual Group, Farmers Insurance Group, Travelers Cos. and Nationwide Financial Services.^[25][26]  CMT has also partnered with Intact^[27] and Desjardins in Canada,^[28] HUK-COBURG in Germany,^[29] Admiral,^[30] Hastings,^[31] and First Central in the UK,^[32] Discovery Insure in South Africa,^[33] Aioi in Japan,^[34] and many others across the world.

The company has also partnered with Hyundai,^[35] Verizon^[36] and ADT^[37] to provide crash detection services, and AARP,^[38] DoorDash,^[39] and Uber^[40] to improve driver safety. CMT has worked with The Ohio Traffic Safety Office to report on hands-free law performance.^[41]

CMT has expanded its services through strategic acquisitions, including TrueMotion Inc. in 2021^[42][24] and Amodo, a European telematics company, in 2023.^{[43][18][44][45][26]}

CMT’s DriveWell Fusion platform and DriveWell Product Suites provide customers with actionable data and insights to assess driving risk, proactively improve driving safety, and provide real-time data and services in the event of a crash.

The company also works with customers to promote global sustainability with gas savings and CO2 emissions reductions through efficient driving techniques, helping ensure regulatory compliance.^[46][47]

CMT’s DriveWell Fusion Platform connects sources of driving risk and safety data through its mobile SDK, connected vehicle integrations, and proprietary IoT devices including the DriveWell Tag and the DriveScape dash cam.

It processes that data and makes it usable through a combination of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning for CMT’s global enterprise customers in insurance, commercial mobility, automotive manufacturing, and the public sector with insights, tools, and integrations with ecosystem partners.

CMT offers several products across three DriveWell Product Suites:

• DriveWell Risk - Assesses driving risk based on real driving behavior data and analytics with a set of telematics risk elements, and actuarially-validated risk scoring models.^[48][49]
• DriveWell Engage - Improves driving safety and boosts retention with tools for insurers to provide drivers with tips, advice, and real-time coaching to reduce risk and claims severity.^[50]
• DriveWell Crash & Claims - Detects real-time data and provides driver services at the scene in the event of a crash to improve driver safety and claims accuracy.^[51][52]

CMT also leverages its expertise to make roads and drivers safer globally with pre-built mobile applications.

Safe Driving Applications: Customers globally leverage CMT’s pre-built, customizable mobile application template to accelerate time-to-market for their mobile telematics programs. Customers can also add CMT’s technology to their apps through an SDK integration.

Safest Driver Program: A mobile application and program that uses AI and mobile driving data to identify risky driving behaviors, address them, and promote safe driving.^[53] It has shown significant reductions in crashes and dangerous driving incidents within six weeks of launch. The Federal Highway Administration has called it a Vision Zero success story.^[54][47][55]

Openroad: CMT’s consumer mobile application that detects crashes and provides emergency services at the scene.

CMT’s Road Safety Board collaborates to address global road crashes and fatalities, focusing on distracted driving.^[56] Notable collaborations include the Oklahoma Safe Driving Contest, a partnership between The Oklahoma Challenge and CMT, promoting safe driving behaviors among teen drivers.^[57] CMT has held similar Safest Drivers contests in Los Angeles,^[58] Boston,^[59] San Antonio,^[60] Seattle,^[61] and South Africa.^[62] Key partners include the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office, and Educational Alternatives.^[57]

The company has collaborated with the Travelers Institute to develop educational guides promoting safer driving practices.^[63]

CMT has also collaborated with IIHS to study the accuracy of telematics for assessing driving risk. IIHS researchers found the data representative of real-world driving behaviors and highlighted telematic’s potential to provide insights into cellphone usage and its link to crash risk.^[64]

CMT has worked with researchers at Stanford to understand traffic enforcement patterns with large-scale telematics data.^[65]

The company partnered with UPENN to study various methodologies to change driving behaviors. The research received funding from the Federal Highway Administration’s Exploratory Advanced Research Program.^[66]

CMT also partnered with researchers at UPENN to validate the accuracy of its driver/passenger classification, which was found to have a 97% accuracy rate.^[67]

A study by Cambridge Mobile Telematics found that households owning both traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles and electric vehicles adjusted their usage patterns in response to rising gas prices. From February 2022 to June 2022, there was a 10% increase in trips taken in Tesla vehicles among these households, while mileage accrued by ICE vehicles showed a consistent decline compared to the previous year. These findings suggest a shift in driving behaviors and vehicle preferences among American consumers, with electric vehicles like Tesla models gaining appeal amidst increasing fuel costs.^[68]

The separate study provides an in-depth analysis of the significant impact of user engagement in telematics programs on reducing road risk.^[69] Unlike previous research, this study examines various risky driving behaviors such as hard braking, distracted driving, and speeding while accounting for mileage. It measures the driving performance of 100,000 drivers enrolled in usage-based insurance programs in the US over three months. The findings reveal that the most engaged drivers among the riskiest group showed substantial improvements in their driving behavior: a 20% reduction in distracted driving, a 9% decrease in hard braking, and a 27% reduction in speeding from the first to the third month. By comparing telematics data with 1,500 insurance claims, researchers at CMT determined that these improvements would lead to a 5.5% reduction in bodily injury claims.^[69]

CMT holds multiple patents related to its technology, including systems for detecting airbag deployment in vehicle crashes, device-based systems for detecting screen state and device movement, and systems for classifying driver behavior.^[70][71]

CMT has received several industry awards, including:^[72][73][74]

• Hari Balakrishnan received the 2023 Marconi Prize for his work in mobile sensing and networking.^[75]
• Bill Powers and Hari Balakrishnan were recognized by EY as Entrepreneur Of The Year in 2021.^[76]
• Recognition among the top 50 insurtech firms by CB Insights.
• Named as a "Leader" in the auto telematics market by CB Insights.
• Winner of the 2023 AutoTech Breakthrough Award for "Vehicle Telematics Company of the Year".
• Recognition as a "Technology Innovation Honoree" in 2023.
• CMT's FuelStar app was honored as a Webby Award Honoree.
• The partnership with Travelers Insurance earned the Loyalty 360 Award for "Technology and Trends".