Did someone say Skittles?
Israeli startup Taykey recently signed an agreement with the Wrigley Division of Mars Inc., the global confectionery giant. Taykey has been tasked with measuring global trends for Wrigley’s Skittles and Juicy Fruit products.
Fluctuations in consumer use of these brands have immense economic significance if they are detected in real time, and enable the company to react quickly. In this way, Mars can carry out more precise advertising for their targeted audiences, initiate events and even make changes to products according to developing trends.
The relationship between the Israeli company and the international giant was created following a tweet posted by Donald Trump Jr., son of the US president, in which he wrote, “If I had a bowl of Skittles and I told you just three would kill you. Would you take a handful? That’s our Syrian refugee problem.”
A special analysis carried out by Taykey revealed that the reference to the brand led to a massive increase in the consumption of Skittles even though it was mentioned in a negative context. The publicity made giant waves in the industry and paved the way for increased sales.
Taykey analyses global trends found in social network activity, communication on smart phone apps, and Internet users’ opinions. In addition, Taykey also crosschecks users’ preferences, such as their support of certain brands, their admiration of singers, athletes and politicians, which provide a basis for future commercial collaborations.
Amit Avner founded Taykey because he believed that traditional public opinion polls were outdated and less reliable than comments people wrote on social networks, and that tracking these opinions would offer a more accurate assessment of what people really think. Instead of carrying out telephone surveys, which few people agree to participate in, and even if they do they don’t always answer truthfully, Taykey analyses the actions and words of over 300 million people in real time. The company has a staff of 60 employees in Israel and the US, and has raised $32 million to date from Sequoia Capital, SoftBank and Eric Schmidt.
Mobileye and BMW sign agreement
BMW Group and Mobileye announced on February 21 that they have signed an agreement introducing Mobileye’s Road Experience Management data generation technology in newly developed BMW Group models entering the market in 2018. This agreement to crowdsource real-time data using vehicles equipped with camera-based Advanced Driver Assist System (ADAS) technology is a critical enabler for autonomous driving through next-generation high-definition maps aimed at making driving safer and more efficient for consumers.
The agreement is entered into with a sense of inclusiveness and industry collaboration with the goal to further promote automated driving in a safe and robust way. BMW Group sensor data can be merged with data from different automakers, resulting in a larger scale of data used to create Mobileye’s Global RoadBook, to support and rapidly update HD maps with highly accurate localization capabilities.
Autonomous vehicles will require HD maps that can identify and update changes in the environment with near real-time speed enabling very short “time to reflect reality.”
The cameras that enable to collect anonymized, fleet-wide data act as intelligent agents that, through Mobileye EyeQ® processors and software, can identify valuable information that is sent to the cloud in a highly compressed form (10 kilobytes per kilometer). This data can be used to add a dynamic layer to current and future navigation maps, enabling BMW Group customers to access true real-time information on traffic density, potential road hazards, weather conditions, on-street parking, and other helpful information.
To support the rapid creation and updating of HD mapping, the BMW Group and Mobileye will transfer anonymized data to HERE, the leading mapping and location service. HERE will use this data and information to conduct real-time updates of HERE HD Live Map, HERE’s real-time cloud service for partially, highly and fully automated vehicles, and enhance its Open Location Platform, ensuring an accurate depiction of the real world as it changes. Mobileye and HERE earlier communicated their intention to integrate data gathered through REM™ technology as a layer in HERE HD Live Map. The BMW Group has always stressed that it is open for collaboration with additional partners, be it OEMs or third parties.
The collaboration underlines the systematic and inclusive approach of the BMW Group concerning cooperations for automated driving. This approach comprises, among others, the cooperation with HERE as well as the cooperation with Intel and Mobileye on bringing highly automated driving to the streets by 2021 with the BMW iNEXT. Besides its automotive competence in safety and software standards as well as motion control, the BMW Group especially contributes its leading capabilities in end-to-end system integration which are essential to implement groundbreaking technologies like autonomous driving and transfer them into series production.
Information on BMW taken from: www.prnewswire.com.
Translated by Hannah Hochner.