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Orca AI To Save Lives With Its Collision Avoidance System For Ships

Orca AI combines data from sensors with artificial intelligence to provide real-time insights that reflect the changing conditions at sea.

Published

3 years ago

May 5, 2021

Joanna Melki

Orca AI

The recent Suez Canal blockage, which lasted for six days after a 400-metre-long (1,300 ft) container ship ended up wedged across the waterway due to the combination of strong winds and human errors, showed the whole world just how easily can major shipping accidents happen and how severe and long-lasting their impact can be. Unfortunately, the Suez Canal blockage was just one of several thousand marine incidents that occur annually. Now, one Tel Aviv-based company has successfully raised €10.8 million in a Series A round to work on its ship navigation and collision avoidance system, Orca AI.

“The maritime industry has come leaps and bounds in recent years, but is still far behind aviation with technological innovations. Ships deal with increasingly congested waterways, severe weather and low-visibility conditions creating difficult navigation experiences with often expensive cargo,” says Orca AI CEO and co-founder Yarden Gross.

Orca AI combines data from sensors with artificial intelligence to provide real-time insights that reflect the changing conditions at sea. The system can be used for individual ships to deliver predictions and alerts on hazards, but it can also supply fleet managers with insights on the risk behavior and patterns of the entire fleet.

Also Read: Dubai-Based Startup Huspy Helps Emiratis Buy Homes Online

“Utilizing onboard navigation sensors and high-resolution cameras with proprietary AI algorithms, the technology is able to provide valuable insight such as alerting the crew on dangerous targets, prioritize risk in real-time and sort out complex navigation situations,” explains Dor Raviv, Co-Founder & CTO of Orca AI.

Other tech companies are also trying to make the shipping industry safer and less prone to costly accidents. For example, the Saudi Arabian Oil Company is using AI technology to monitor its maritime fleet, while Stockholm-based X Shore is exploring an auto-docking solution that could greatly streamline what’s arguably the most dangerous part of getting a massive cargo ship from point A to point B.

Related Topics:Artificial Intelligence Israel

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Binance Receives Virtual Assets License To Operate In Dubai

As its user base nears 200 million, CEO Richard Teng believes crypto adoption will soar over the next half of the decade.

Published

4 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Nour Nasir

binance receives virtual assets license to operate in dubai

Global crypto exchange Binance has been granted a full operational license in Dubai, in a move that’s expected to accelerate digital asset adoption and strengthen the UAE’s regulatory landscape.

The virtual asset service provider license (VASP) was granted by the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) and will allow Binance to extend its current range of services to retail investors, the company announced yesterday.

The move by Dubai authorities will be critical to Binance’s strategy of growing its user base globally. The crypto exchange expects to pass the 200 million user mark “quite shortly”, according to Richard Teng, the company’s CEO.

Once that milestone is achieved, Binance will have around twice as many users as rival platform Coinbase. Meanwhile, Crypto.com, another popular exchange with 80 million users, received a Dubai VASP license last week.

“We’re seeing much greater institutional adoption and institutional money coming into this space [along with] much greater regulatory clarity and a lot more jurisdictions approving [digital asset] products that bring in new investor classes,” Binance’s Richard Tang explained, adding: “As of now, we stand at about 5% crypto adoption globally, but that will become much faster moving forward”.

Also Read: Microsoft Invests $1.5 Billion In Abu Dhabi AI Tech Firm G42

Dubai and the UAE are extremely supportive of technologies like digital assets, and have already launched initiatives to boost adoption. The UAE has ambitious plans to become a world leader in the crypto economy of the future, with Dubai in particular being noteworthy for passing a new law to regulate virtual assets to support investors and exchanges.

“Global crypto regulation is currently showing diverging signs. Some developed countries have long suffered from crypto-related frauds and illegal exchanges. On the other hand, emerging nations like the UAE and Singapore have enacted crypto laws at faced pace,” said Vijay Valecha, chief investment officer of Dubai-based Century Financial.

As the UAE gears up to become one of the fastest-growing crypto capitals worldwide, investors and talent are flocking to places like Dubai. During 2023, the Emirates as a whole realized $204 million in capital gains from cryptocurrency investments, according to blockchain data analysts Chainalysis.