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Not-so-accidental life-saving solution

If only road accidents could be averted it could help save so many lives and that is precisely the aim of Dubai-based Derq. The startup through its patented solution, DerqPrevent, helps predict 9 in 10 accidents prior to collision and warn drivers and vehicles with enough notice to pre-empt an accident at any time, independent of vehicle model, autonomy and surroundings making roads safer for drivers, passengers and vehicles.
The solution is based on patented technology developed in The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by young and bright Dr Georges Aoude, co-founder and chief executive officer, Derq, for both today's drivers and tomorrow's autonomous vehicles.
"The technology was tested and validated on more than 100,000 cars in the US in collaboration with the Department of Transportation. Our solution can be immediately deployed on roads and existing cars, and will become standard on new cars, including self-driving ones," Aoude, said.
The PhD holder says building a reliable connected infrastructure is vital to enable widespread use of autonomous and connected vehicles which Dubai is thriving to do.
"Our solutions build on connected infrastructure to communicate real-time critical safety warnings to vehicles and pedestrians and protect them from road accidents."
During Aoude's PhD at MIT in the Aerospace Controls Laboratory, and after working with Nasa on satellites and US Navy on drones developing autonomous systems and collision avoidance algorithms he was asked by Ford Motor Company and the United States Department of Transportation (US DoT) to leverage those technologies to tackle the road safety problem, specifically focusing on reducing car accidents. Aoude successfully built new innovative and highly effective algorithms that were tested on a large data set from the US DoT. "The technology I built will help both today's drivers and tomorrow's autonomous vehicles," says Aoude.

After working in the US in the transportation and aerospace advisory industry, Aoude received a patent for his technology and decided to launch Derq in 2016.
"I chose to launch Derq in the UAE because the GCC faces major road safety issues with an alarming rate of road fatalities (1 person is killed every 53 minutes on GCC roads). The UAE government has committed to reduce accident deaths to UK level by 2021, and is supporting startups like Derq to launch their companies and tackle such global scale problems. We are also very excited to be aligned with Dubai's strategy to pioneer and lead the deployment of autonomous and connected transportation," says Aoude.
Derq has two co-founders - Dr Amer Abufadel (CTO) and Karl Jeanbart (COO). Dr Amer has a PhD from Georgia Institute of Technology in Electrical Engineering, and is regarded as an expert in IoT and embedded systems design and integration. He has worked with Siemens and US defence contractors.
Karl Jeanbart is a professional engineer with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and Finance from McGill University. He has extensive experience working with multinationals and governments in Canada and the GCC in product and strategy development. Derq's mission is to predict and prevent car accidents before anyone can even notice them. They identify bad behaviour, predict likelihood of an accident, and save the lives of 'good' drivers.
Derq's Detroit connection
Detroit, known as "Motor City" is the historic heart of the American automotive industry, with the Detroit Big Three - Ford, GM, Chrysler, and the whole value chain based in the city's metropolitan area. Detroit is also leading the way in the development of autonomous vehicles in the US with the big three, Toyota, Honda and tech giants such as Waymo (Google) and Uber among others working on the technology in the area.
"We are the first start-up in the region to get accepted to the Techstars Mobility accelerator programme in Detroit. It is a premier programme that boasts a two per cent acceptance rate and supports startups to launch in the global scene," said Aoude.
Derq was selected from 500 applications from 52 countries. The Derq team is currently in Detroit for three months to partner and work closely with industry leaders from major car manufacturers- Ford, Honda, Jaguar-Land Rover, GM - global component and equipment suppliers - Bosch, Siemens, Michelin and companies like Munich Re, Nationwide, AAA.
The venture is currently at pilot stage with Dubai authorities and will be announced soon in Dubai.
"We launched our startup in Dubai. We initially joined the 1,776 incubator and are currently part of Tecom's In5 Tech Innovation centre," said Aoude. He disclosed that initially the founders bootstrapped for almost a year and recently they raised over $1.3 million seed round from family and friends, family offices and seasoned angel investors from around the region including Antoine Massad, chairman of BECO Capital and Fadi Ghandour, chairman of Wamda Group, providing early support and validation for future growth and funding. Techstars also participated in this round.
"My interest to invest started with the team's background and specifically the founder and CEO, Georges Aoude who holds a PhD from MIT in Aerospace Engineering. After spending many hours with Georges and his co-founders discussing their vision and getting a first hand feel for their motivation and determination, my conviction to invest in them only grew stronger," Massad said.
The vision itself within the "autonomous driving theme" and more specifically on "collision prediction and prevention" for cars fascinated Massad.
Autonomous "Driving is one of the main focuses and themes within the automotive industry globally in which a lot of research and development is currently taking place by all vehicle manufacturers globally. Whilst this is currently proving to be a challenging and very competitive sector/specialty.
"I am a strong believer that the broad autonomous driving technology once successfully applied ought to become easily spread across the broader automotive industry segments. Accident and Collision prevention will be at the core of this," said Massad.
"The Derq team is very unique being the first of its kind in and out of the Middle East region. Derq is based in the UAE and founded by first class Arab nationals focused on creating a safer driving community and environment using superior new technologies."
Endorsing positive sentiments, Ghandour, said: "Investing in early stage technology is what I have been doing for years now, I have know Georges for quite sometime and I was impressed with his innovative thinking in solving big problems that we face in society today, Derq is one company addressing the challenge of road safety in a very scientific way."
Aoude's team has a strong sense of belief in him as well as in success of the innovation.
"Occasionally, you encounter someone that demands your attention. They are driven, focused, knowledgeable and unstoppable. They come to you with an idea that is not only scientific, but also serves the greater good. It helps in saving lives! What else can you ask for? Then, that person brings over his teammate and you find out they both left their high paying jobs to pursue this idea. That is raw commitment, bare of any hype and illusion. Those are the kind of people you want around you day in and day out. That someone is Dr Georges and his team is Derq and I am lucky to be part of it," Abufadel said.
Similalry supporting Aoude is Jeanbart, who said he joined joined Derq for two main reasons. First, it was an opportunity to work with an all-star team with some of the brightest and most qualified professionals.
"The challenge we're tackling is super exciting. We are trying to eradicate road accidents, one of the main causes of fatalities, using emerging technologies that will completely disrupt the way we live, conduct business and move people and goods around in the years to come, such as Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things. We are very proud to be pioneers in our field and the startup ecosystem in the region."
- sandhya@khaleejtimes.com