Automotives, here's how you use health features in your vehicles!
In my recent travels, from InCabin Barcelona to customer meetings in Japan, I’ve been hearing the same refrain over and over. The automotive industry is saying: “we want health measurement in our cars” and “we want to measure vital signs”. While the ambition is clear, the exact “what” and “why” are often undefined. Simply measuring vital signs won't deliver the full value needed for the next generation of vehicles. This is a turning point for the automotive industry - and the focus needs to shift from generic data to insights that truly enhance safety, comfort, and wellbeing.
So, here’s my take on what health measurements you should really be asking for.
Safety first!
The mantra I keep hearing is “Safety first.” While reducing accidents is crucial, it is not the same as improving individual health. Yes, there is some overlap between driver safety and health measurement. For example, detecting a sudden event like a heart attack is directly related to driver safety monitoring, but that’s a rare outlier.
From a business strategy perspective, safety is also not a great driver for growth. Driver safety monitoring is characterised by strict, uniform test protocols such as EURO NCAP 2029 (for more information, see the NCAP 2030 vision). Because every car will need to meet these basic standards, it becomes a race to the bottom to find Tier 1 or Tier 2 suppliers with solutions that are just good enough to get you a 4 or 5 star rating. It becomes a fixed cost that reduces profit margins without improving differentiation. It’s a bad market to be in for everyone except the consumer, basically.
The car as your private clinic
The car as your private clinic is a very different concept, practically the polar opposite. It is a key opportunity not just to differentiate an OEM’s brand from others, but to open up an entirely novel, high margin revenue stream. The opportunity here goes as follows: many countries around the world are witnessing an increasingly decentralised healthcare provision system, with private diagnostics and treatment blending with public healthcare provision. Ubiquitous sensors and the power of AI will make personalised healthcare a reality. In the US, the private digital health, diagnostics, and point of care markets are worth over $125 billion. Digital health alone is $81b today and grows at a CAGR of 19.5%! This means there’s a big market for bringing digital health to the customer. And cars are a great place to measure, as I’ve pointed out before.
Cars are quiet. They’re private. It’s easy to put in relatively expensive sensors. People sit at the same place every day, doing the same thing, around the same time. Once self-driving capabilities mature, you will also be able to use your time in the car to get treatment. It really is hard to think of a better place than a car. It’s even better than measuring in people’s homes in terms of understanding what a person is doing, avoiding complexities of multiple people living together, and positioning.
Our Focus
At BLUESKEYE AI we are going all-in on letting OEMS turn their vehicles into medical devices. We will provide software that will provide early diagnosis in particular of slowly developing but highly prevalent conditions such as Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.
Our technology is already undergoing its first clinical trials, with amazing results. As we highly value collaborative work, we are always open to discussing ideas for measuring other medical conditions with automotive partners. Perhaps the common cold?
If the potential for commercial growth intrigues you, or if you work in the automotive industry and would like to workshop a health use case with us, please get in touch! We would love to work with you.