Hyundai’s incoming AI might just save your life

After the trepidation around how autonomous vehicles will kill our love of driving, if we should be ok with giving big conglomerates access to our driving data and questioning what the motivations behind others might be, we can finally report a technology advance we think everyone might be happy about.

In what looks like it will herald a new generation of more hyper-connected safety systems, Hyundai has announced a partnership with Israeli medical artificial intelligence start-up MDGo. The partnership will draw on MDGo’s elaborate AI algorithm, which, in the case of an accident, will be able to measure the degree of injury and alert emergency services in real-time.

What that means exactly is yet to be determined but Hyundai has said that the technology will use a range of sensors in the car to determine injury level and what safety systems have been activated.

MDgo sais that the AI technology will be able to interpret accident data and compile insights regarding the occupants and the vehicle. Then, within seven seconds of impact, send emergency services a detailed analysis of potential injuries, communicated through medical terms.

Hyundai runs its own crash labs in both the US and Korea (pic: Hyundai)

The most valuable part of this technology, however, will be the ability to cut down on critical response time following a high-trauma incident.

“We are excited to partner with one of the world's leading car manufacturers to bridge the gap between vehicle and medical,” said Itay Bengad, Chief Executive Officer at MDGo in a statement. “Hyundai shares our vision to provide life-saving services by utilising the constantly growing stream of vehicle data to improve passenger safety.”

Furthermore, MDGo and Hyundai claim the AI system will be continually learning and refining its interpretation of different accident scenarios. In a statement, Hyundai wrote, “This process of iterative enhancement is facilitated by hospitals inputting real data on patients’ injuries, which the system compares to its prediction to further refine its analysis.”

Hyundai also claims that the partnership will also help it to enhance the active and passive safety capabilities of its future vehicles.

“Big data gathered from detailed, intelligent analysis of multiple accident scenarios will inform Hyundai of how to bolster crash structures and integrate new technologies to overcome issues identified by the AI analysis.”