Pointer Telocation Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq:PNTR) is entering the market for smart cars and avoiding accidents. The company today announced that it had won a tender to manage a five-year driver behavior project in cooperation with the American Transit Insurance Company (ATIC), which provides commercial insurance for rented cars in New York.
The project will include 4,000 service cars and luxury vehicles serving customers using the company's transportation apps and others like Uber and Lyft. Installation of the system in the vehicles is scheduled for completion in February. Auto market sources estimated the contract at $2.4 million.
The system, which combines Mobileye's(NYSE: MBLY) technology with hardware and software technologies of Pointer's Cellocator system, will provide management capabilities for a fleet of smart cars, analyze driver behavior, and reduce accidents.
Managed by CEO David Mahlab, Pointer deals in mobile resource management (MRM), including location-based services, vehicle fleet management, and assets tracking. Mahlab explains, "This is our first significant penetration of the US market using our software as a service (SaaS) model, which enables us to extend our sales to additional areas, beyond those in which we are currently operating, by integrating hardware and software platforms. We see significant potential in this project, and believe that in the future, this solution will become a standard for every commercial vehicle in the US."
The controlling shareholder in Pointer is DBSI, Pointer chairman Yossi Ben Shalom and Barak Dotan's private investment company, which holds a 29.5% stake in Pointer. Other shareholders in Pointer include The Phoenix Holdings Ltd. (TASE: PHOE1;PHOE5) (16.5%); Gandyr Investments, controlled by Judith Yovel Recanati (10.1%); and other investment institutions from Israel and the US.
The Pointer share price has climbed 33% over the past year, pushing the company's market cap up to $55 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on January 18, 2017
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