Kane and CARRO JAPAN Launch AI-Powered Driving Data Trial to Enhance Taxi Safety Operations

Kane Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto City, hereinafter 'Kane'), which operates taxi and hire car services primarily in Kyoto City and also handles transportation for school trip students, and CARRO JAPAN Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, hereinafter 'CARRO JAPAN'), a joint venture between SoftBank Corp. and Trusty Cars Pte. Ltd. (Carro), have started a trial operation of AI-powered driving data to build a 'next-generation safety management system' for taxis.

In this initiative, CARRO JAPAN's communication devices will be installed in some of Kane's vehicles to assess driving risks, enhance safety operation management, and verify the potential for use in safe driving education. Through the accumulation and analysis of driving data, the feasibility of data-based safety management will be evaluated, aiming to accumulate knowledge for future full-scale deployment.

[Background]

In recent years, the passenger transport industry has been required to move beyond the traditional notion that 'no accident history equals safety' and to objectively grasp daily driving characteristics through data to detect signs of potential risks early.

Kane, which prides itself on 'supreme hospitality,' supports the mobility of many customers, including school trip students visiting Kyoto. It has always prioritized safety, continuously conducting safety education for drivers and operation management. Particularly in transporting school trip students, as they are entrusted with the lives of children and students, providing higher safety and peace of mind is essential. Furthermore, to ensure all customers can use their services with confidence, improving the safety awareness of each driver and providing continuous education are indispensable.

Against this background, Kane and CARRO JAPAN have started this trial operation to verify new safety management methods using AI and driving data, as an initiative to further enhance their traditional safety education and operation management systems.

[Details of the Trial Operation]

1. Verification of Enhanced Safety Management through Collection and Analysis of Driving Data

CARRO JAPAN's communication devices will be installed in Kane's vehicles to acquire and analyze driving data. This will visualize driving behaviors such as speeding, sudden braking, and sharp steering, and verify mechanisms that make it easier for managers to grasp operational status. The construction of a continuous safety improvement cycle using accumulated data will also be evaluated.

2. Verification of the Effectiveness of AI-based Safe Driving Evaluation

Based on the acquired driving data, the AI's safe driving scoring function will be used to analyze driving tendencies for each driver. This will objectively visualize driving characteristics and risk tendencies that were previously difficult to grasp, and examine their use in safety guidance and education. It will also verify whether data-based feedback leads to improved safety awareness for each driver and the enhancement of continuous safe driving education.

3. Consideration for Future Realization of a Monitoring Service

Based on the insights gained from this trial operation, the possibility of future introduction will be considered for services that further improve peace of mind and transparency, such as a monitoring service that allows parents of school trip students to check the safe operation status of vehicles.

[Comment from Li-Shuai Xu, Representative Director of Kane Co., Ltd.]

'Our mission is to provide our customers with 'supreme hospitality' and 'the best service.' Especially when transporting school trip students, we are entrusted with the precious lives of our customers' children. Through this trial operation, we will verify the potential of technology-based safety management and aim to realize a service that can be used with even greater peace of mind.'

[Comment from Satoshi Asaeda, Representative Director, President & CEO of CARRO JAPAN Co., Ltd.]

'We are very pleased to be able to jointly verify the use of CARRO JAPAN's data utilization solutions in Kane's important safety initiatives. Through this trial operation, we will verify the enhancement of safety management through the use of driving data and contribute to a new approach to safe operation in the passenger transport industry.'

[Company Overview] Kane Co., Ltd.

Location: 34-1-A-205 Fukuinasa Goshonouchi-cho, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto City, Kyoto Prefecture

Business: Taxi and hire car services, provision of services by multinational drivers operating in 'World Kyoto' and 'Attractive Kansai'

https://kane.co.jp/

CARRO JAPAN Co., Ltd.

Location: WeWork 9F, Tokyo Port City Takeshiba, 1-7-1 Kaigan, Minato-ku, Tokyo

Business: Corporate car leasing, provision of driving data solutions

https://carrojapan.co.jp/

[Contact for this matter]

CARRO JAPAN Co., Ltd. Public Relations

E-mail: info@carrojapan.co.jp