The Garage by Sonatus

This episode from CES 2026 features Michael O'Shea, CTO and COO of MOTER Technologies, discussing the company's approach to usage-based insurance through in-vehicle AI deployment. MOTER Technologies, backed by a major Japanese insurance company, places software directly in vehicles to analyze sensor data and generate fair driver risk scores while maintaining privacy through edge computing. O'Shea explains how their collaboration with Sonatus AI Director enables standardized deployment of their lightweight AI models across different vehicle platforms, benefiting drivers through potentially lower insurance costs, OEMs through revenue sharing and customer loyalty programs, and insurance companies through more accurate risk assessment. The conversation covers the evolution from traditional OBD dongles and smartphone apps to sophisticated in-vehicle systems that provide contextual understanding of driving behavior. O'Shea also discusses their DriveSAGE coaching application that provides feedback to help drivers improve their safety scores, emphasizing the importance of transparency and customer consent in data usage.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction to MOTER Technologies and CES 2026
0:45 Meet Michael O'Shea
1:10 Michael's Background in Automotive Industry
2:30 Fun Facts and Personal Stories
3:42 Overview of MOTER Technologies
5:27 Innovative Approaches to Usage-Based Insurance
6:58 Addressing Privacy Concerns in Data Usage
8:37 Benefits for OEMs and the Automotive Ecosystem
9:58 Enhancing Brand Loyalty through Technology
11:02 Collaboration with Sonatus and AI Director
14:12 MOTER-Sonatus Case study and Demonstration Insights
16:45 Introducing Drive Sage Coaching Application
17:41 Engaging Younger Drivers with Data Sharing
18:13 Building Trust through Transparency
18:56 Closing Thoughts and Future Conversations

Creators and Guests

Host
John Heinlein, Ph.D.
An experienced technology and marketing leader, John brings his background from startups and established companies to Sonatus. He worked for 14 years at Arm, most recently leading Automotive Partnerships for North America where he engaged OEMs, Tier-1s, and others to deploy Arm-based solutions into automotive applications, including autonomous vehicles. His team was integral to launching the SOAFEE industry initiative for software-defined vehicles of which Sonatus is a member. Earlier he served as VP and Chief of Staff to the CEO and led a group responsible for competitive strategy. For three years, he was VP of Corporate Marketing where he led centralized outbound marketing, spanning marketing campaigns, press, events, web, digital marketing, ecosystem programs, and working closely with investor relations. Prior to Arm, John had an 11-year tenure at microprocessor startup Transmeta where he held several senior roles spanning business development, marketing, and customer success, among others. John earned his B.S. in Computer Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University and an M.S. and Ph.D., both in Electrical Engineering, from Stanford University.

What is The Garage by Sonatus?

The Garage Podcast from Sonatus brings you conversations with thought leaders from around the vehicle technology space discussing far-reaching topics about software innovation in vehicles.

These episodes will include industry experts, whether from Sonatus, or from our amazing partners across the industry, all of whom will share their Ideas and their outlook for the most important topics in vehicle technology. Episodes span from more technical topics, to business evolution, and market trends. Join us and learn about the future of vehicle in The Garage.

Today in The Garage at an
episode recorded live here at

CES2026, our guest
is Michael O'Shea.

Michael is Chief Technology
Officer and Chief Operating

Officer at MOTER, a
usage-based insurance leader.

In today's conversation,
we talk about what MOTER's

technology is, how it works
by being in the vehicle,

providing benefits to
drivers and OEMs alike.

We talk about the shift to AI
in the automotive industry and

how our collaboration with MOTER
enables easier deployment into vehicles.

It's a very exciting
conversation. Let's go.

Welcome to The Garage.

I'm John Heinlein, Chief
Marketing Officer with Sonatus.

Today in our in the podcast,
we have a guest from MOTER,

a usage based insurance leader.

I'm happy to welcome Michael
O'Shea to the podcast.

Michael, so glad you
could be with us today.

Why don't you begin by
telling us about you?

Yes, John. Yeah.

Thank you very much for
including us in the in The

Garage. So my name
is Michael O'Shea.

I'm COO, CTO of
MOTER Technologies.

I'm a thirty year plus veteran
of the automotive industry.

I've spent most of my career
on automotive software with a

particular focus on connected
vehicles and softwaredefined vehicles.

I started my career working for
Alpine Electronics way back in

the early 1990s and
developed some audio

systems and eventually navigation
systems for that company,

including the first line fit
navigation system in the US with Honda.

It's still a partner of
mine many years later.

After that, I moved to the
US and worked for a company then

known as Navigation
Technologies.

Today, they're called
HERE, a mapping company.

And there, I worked with
automotive ecosystem partners,

OEMs, and suppliers, developing
location based services and solutions.

And then I started
my own company.

For almost twenty years, I
had a company called Abalta

Technologies that provided
software services and

software products to
the automotive industry.

I sold that back in 2018.

Just prior to joining MOTER,

I worked at AWS with a focus
on connected mobility and

software defined vehicles.

And then I found myself
working for MOTER Technologies,

a very interesting company at the
intersection of insurance and automotive.

And we'll get to
MOTER in a second.

You got to tell us a
fun fact about you.

Okay. Fun fact.

So as you might tell from my
accent, I grew up in Ireland.

And upon graduating from
college, I moved to Japan.

As you do.

As you do. And it was an
interesting time, 1991.

There weren't a lot of people
moving to Japan at that time.

But in Ireland, we had a government
program that was placing graduate

engineers various companies
in Japan over about a four or

five-year period.

And I was one of several
hundred Irishmen that Irishmen

and women that
ended up in Japan.

And there's some of
them still living there.

And actually, quite a few of them
are in the automotive industry.

So if you hear
those Irish accents,

it's probably coming
from that program.

It's an incredible story.

So my fun fact back to you is
I lived in Japan for about six

months, about twenty years ago. And

and it was a
wonderful experience.

I had been working with
Japan for many, many,

many years before that,

and I had an opportunity to do
an assignment there for a while.

And I've worked with Japanese
customers for fifteen, twenty years.

And it's a wonderful experience.

And there's a million Irish
pubs in Tokyo. That is right.

As I'm sure, know,
maybe that's why.

Now I understand why.

This is why.

So it's it's
wonderful to have you.

So tell us about MOTER for our
listeners who may not know about it.

Yeah.

So MOTER Technologies By way,

want to say MOTER is spelled
M-O-T-E-R because everyone of

course thinks of "motor".

Right.

And that's not a
misspelling, actually.

It's Mobility on the
Edge in Real Time.

And I'll explain why we
call it that as we go.

But essentially, a company
sitting, as I said,

between automotive and
insurance companies.

It was a company spun out of a
very large Japanese insurance

company, Aoi Nissay
Dowa Insurance,

which is part of the
MS&AD Insurance Group,

so a significant backer there.

The key insight that led to
the formation of MOTER is that

modern vehicles are equipped
with lots of sensors, cameras,

radars, LiDARs even.

And the data coming off of
these sensors can be extremely

valuable to insurance companies.

Traditionally,
they've relied on OBD,

like dongle-type
devices or smartphones,

to gather information about
acceleration, braking,

cornering, and speeding, ABCs.

So these are kind
of proxies for risk.

But if we understand
the context,

we can do a much better job
of really measuring risk and

fairly attributing risk.

For example, if you brake aggressively
because somebody runs out in

front of you, you shouldn't
be penalized for that, right?

So that was the idea.

And what our intention is is
to get our software running

on the vehicle where we can
access that data locally,

keep the data on the
vehicle for privacy reasons,

and limit the amount of data
we're sending to the back end

to reduce cost.

So hence, mobility on
the edge in real time.

We want to be on the edge.

We do some cloud
integrations, but primarily it's integrated.

That's okay. So then let's
double click on that.

So tell us about how your
approach with deploying UBI or

these driver scoring in
the vehicle differs from

conventional approaches.

Let's go to the next
level detail then.

Right.

So I think the conventional
approach, historically,

it started twenty-plus years
ago with dongle devices that

are plugged into the car.

It's not very reliable.

Different vehicles can
draw up different issues.

And sometimes customers
will play with this.

They'll unplug if they're
intending to drive fast to CES

from Los Angeles or
something like that.

So it's not the most
reliable way to gather data.

And it's also expensive.

There's an operational
challenge in getting dongles

out to customers, collecting
them after the fact, and so on.

So along comes the smartphone.

And the insurance
companies said, Okay,

these are everywhere, maybe
we can build a usage based

insurance application
on top of a smartphone.

And indeed, many of
them do so today.

But again, lots of issues.

The accuracy of the data,

the ability for the
user to change the

permissions, and so on,

such that you're not
getting a good score.

All of these...knowing
who's driving, for example.

And knowing who's driving
is a critical issue as well.

So there's some
limitations with these.

And of course, they're not accessing
all that rich data that is on the car

that gives you the context to
really do this in a manner that

gives you greater fidelity on the risk
score and fairness for the driver.

Well, and as you're doing
that, monitoring, if you will,

monitoring and looking
at driver behavior,

privacy must be a concern.

So what are some ways that you
can ameliorate that and address

privacy concerns?

Yeah, privacy is really
top of mind for us,

and obviously for our OEM customers
and their customers, the drivers.

A lot of issues in that area.

There's been some controversies,

especially in terms of how
data is used by insurance companies.

So no customer wants to find
that their data is finding its

way to an insurance company,

and it's impacting their rates
without their knowledge and consent.

So for us, consent is critical.

Everything we do is
with customer consent.

We're very transparent about it.

It can be withdrawn at any time.

The data can be deleted
if they choose to do so.

So that's built in from day one.

But it's also privacy by design.

And our edge-focused
approach helps

with the data privacy issue
because simply we're not

pulling the data off the
vehicle to begin with.

What we're doing is computing
scores on the vehicle and with

the customer's consent,

sending them to the back end
to the insurer to give them

hopefully a better
price on insurance.

That's great.

And we have, Sonatus has the
same approach to privacy.

We care about it a lot.

Our OEM customers, in
fact, are leveraging --

in a similar way to
what you're doing --

they're leveraging the
configurability of our products

to ensure that they're
respecting the opt in opt out

preferences of our
drivers and customers.

So I think it's
fantastic approach.

So it's clear that drivers can
get a benefit from having a

better scoring, assuming
they're a safe driver,

of course, from this approach.

But what are some benefits
that OEMs and other people that

value chain get as well?

Yeah, especially this is one of
the rare occasions where everybody

benefits if it's done right.

So for OEMs, they're
all very committed to

zero fatalities by encouraging
drivers to be safer.

We can lead them
further down that path.

But there's also many opportunities
for monetization here.

So we provide custom insurance
products for our OEM partners.

An example would be Afeela,

the Sonatus Honda
Mobility company.

We're the Afeela
insurance company,

white labeled for them.

And in cases of
companies like that,

they can offer custom
insurance products,

and they can participate in
some of the revenue flows there.

Insurance companies are very
interested in attracting

quality, low-risk drivers.

They're interested in claims
data, they will pay for this.

So we share revenue with OEMs.

Again, assuming the
consumer consents,

we will share the revenue from
those data insights that we

sell to the insurance companies.

It's fantastic.

And I think we're always looking

in my career really,

lot of my work has been around
partnerships and finding win-wins.

So it's always exciting when
you can see a place where

there's multiple
layers of benefits.

So you're all marching down
the field together and very excited

for everyone to win.

Yeah.

And it goes for the OEM well
beyond that sort of direct

insight monetization.

We bring a lot of value
back into the ecosystem.

And people wonder
how's that possible?

Well, we create
custom endorsements.

If you have an issue with
your car and you need parts

replaced, we will bring the
customer back to the dealership

by guaranteeing OEM
replacement parts.

If you total a vehicle,

we might waive the deductible if
you buy an OEM-replacement vehicle.

So there's a lot of additional
value that comes into the

ecosystem for the OEM.

It's actually very significant
if you add all of this up.

Yeah, we're showing a number of
different demonstrations here

at the show this week where
technologies and the right kind

of technology collaborations
can build brand loyalty,

whether it's upsells or brand
loyalty or getting people

to branded service centers
in various different ways.

And I think it's actually
an often, I think,

underappreciated benefit of
software-defined vehicles and

the kinds of things we're doing
is that you can actually have

more affinity,
not less affinity,

to the OEM if you do it right.

I totally agree.

Know, a big issue for a lot of
our OEM partners really is the

total cost of ownership.

So there's a purchase
price of the vehicle,

but you've got to
consider insurance.

And oftentimes, insurance is
the next most expensive item.

So if we can help
lower that cost,

the consumer appreciates that.

And we can do that through the kinds
of programs we're talking about today.

Well, we have to talk about
our collaboration together.

You've been a wonderful
partner with us.

And just outside the
podcast booth here,

we can see our joint
demonstration here at CES where

we're showing your
model deployed onto an

ECU using our
Sonatus AI Director infrastructure.

AI Director in brief is
means that third party

AI models of all types and
sizes can be deployed into the

vehicle, not in the
edge, not in the cloud,

but into the vehicle.

And but I'd love to hear what
your experience was and how did

this infrastructure help
you in our collaboration.

Yes. That's a that's a
very interesting story.

So for MOTER, fundamentally,

what we're doing is generating
models that take this data that

I've talked about and generates
a score that essentially

predicts the likelihood
of a future collision.

Now, those models are very expensive
and complicated to develop.

They're developed by data
scientists and actuarial scientists.

And they have to be approved by
government regulators in every

state that we operate in.

Oh, is that right?

Yeah. It's really quite
a complicated process.

So that's just the first
step. So we have the models.

They've been approved
by all the states.

Now insurance companies can use
these for underwriting purposes.

But the next step is we've to get
them deployed onto the vehicle.

And that's where
we hit challenges.

If we work OEM by OEM,

everything is bespoke, It's
a very long and very slow

process for us.

It's also hard sometimes to get access
to all of the rich data that we need.

So AI Director was a
wonderful discovery for us,

where we found that we
could deploy our models through AI

Director in a standard way
with a consistent interface to

data with the compute
requirements that we needed,

which are not a lot, but we
certainly need some compute.

So a very easily deployable
mechanism to get our software

on the Vehicle Edge.

So this is great for
companies like us.

Yeah, a couple of points to match
that is one of the things that

we're so excited about and
we're showing here in our show

is that the infrastructure
we're providing,

that an OEM if an OEM commits
to putting that infrastructure

in, they can then deploy each
incremental model like yours

and others very easily versus
if they had to start from zero

on every individual
model that came in,

the integration
costs can be high.

The second is you
mentioned data,

and data is a sort of
lifeblood of Sonatus.

We we come from a data center
background and expertise.

But one of the things we're
doing is providing this this

framework layer that allows us to
sort of serve to you, provide to you.

data from across different
ECUs across the vehicle.

So in the same way,

you don't have to bespoke
integrate with the ADAS system

and the driver monitoring system
and the sonar system or whatever.

You can benefit from those
in a more reusable way.

Yeah, this is a huge benefit
for companies like us.

We also don't want to
have to deal with ASIL,

strict ASIL requirements on
an ADAS domain controller or

something like this.

If we can find a central place
to run where we get access to

that data, and can do
it in a compliant way,

that's wonderful for us.

So you also did a recent case
study with Sonatus showing the

benefits and how this
can be easily deployable.

We'll put that in the show
notes so that the listeners can

click and take a look at that.

And we'll also include
a clip of the video,

the demonstration showing how
this this demonstration works.

It's you mentioned it's
very lightweight model.

But I think a lot of times
the misconception is AI in the

vehicle is limited to kind of
autonomous driving or ADAS,

which can be quite
heavy compute.

We're talking about a few
percent of a single Arm CPU

from many different vendors is
all it takes to run this model,

which is de minimis.

And we're proud
with the Director,

we're able to not only to
provide those kind of bowling

lane limits, so the model
has to live within a specific

memory footprint, within
a specific CPU footprint.

So that's another reassurance that
it's not going to impact

other compute happening side by
side with it on the same ECUs.

That's absolutely correct.

And I think, you know,

the common misconception
that we run into,

because we rely heavily
on computer vision,

is that we're running some
kind of computer vision process

within our model.

We're not actually doing that.

What we're doing is we're
taking the outputs of these

computer vision systems that
are already built into the car.

So we're looking for events that
are coming from those systems.

And then we're doing
some calculations.

So actually a very
lightweight model,

but we can drive enormous
benefit from the processing

that's already happening
in the vehicle.

That's such an
important observation.

And I've been explaining that
to everyone at this show as

they come by is we're not
reinventing the wheel.

The ADAS system already knows
if you're following too closely

because it has to pretty
much by law be prepared for

automatic emergency
braking, for example.

So using that data that's
already there but providing it

to your model means that the
work you have to do is much

less but yet you create value.

Exactly.

So you've been deployed.
You mentioned Sony Afeela.

What other places
you've been deployed?

So we work very
closely with Toyota,

and there'll be some more
news about that in this year.

Sony-Honda Mobility
in Afeela....

And there's another OEM that
we've signed with that we'll be

announcing in the next few
weeks and more to come.

So quite a lot going on.

We're also here at CES showing our
new DriveSage™ coaching application.

It's one thing to measure
your risk and your score,

but we're really committed
to providing information back to

the driver so that they
can understand what behavior is

leading to risk, which is
leading to a bad score,

which is leading to a
high insurance price.

So if we can get that
information to them in a fun

and exciting way,

then we can really hopefully
influence behavior.

So that's what DriveSage is,

and it's an additional offer
that we make through the

Android Automotive
OS app stores.

It's really smart.
I drive an EV.

I've been driving EV for
twelve, fifteen years now.

And if you turn on the monitor
that shows you the energy

consumption of your driving, you
very quickly realize, oh gosh,

I guess I probably could have
accelerated slower and saved energy.

So in a similar way,

the ability to feedback to
a driver who, let's say,

wants to drive safe, maybe
not everybody wants to drive safe.

But imagine your customers
probably want to drive safe.

The ability to help them
understand how to do that

better is a win
win for everyone.

Absolutely.

And I think what people sort
of tend to forget with regards

to being monitored and that a lot
of people are initially skeptical.

And most of those people
honestly are my age, right?

They come along and they
say, I wouldn't do this.

But think about younger drivers.

Their insurance costs
are extremely high.

Very high.

And they're a lot more
accustomed to sharing data if

they get some value in exchange.

As long as it's been done
in a very open, transparent,

and controlled way,
they will do it.

And it's a great
benefit to them.

And we all benefit if they're
safer on the road too.

Absolutely. Transparency is key.

I think everything that
we as an industry do,

we've talked about this
many times on the show,

everything we do if we're transparent
about it is going to build trust.

And it's going to build
adoption if people realize that

they're getting a benefit and they
know what you're doing with it.

Exactly.

So you're walking
around the show,

I know you're meeting
with practically everyone.

What are some trends you see or
what's on your mind this week?

Yeah.

It's I have to admit,

I spent most of it standing
at our our partner's booth,

Yazaki, down just a
few few booths down.

So I didn't get a lot
of time to walk around.

But it's pretty evident that this year,
it's AI, agentic AI, it's robotics.

AI is everywhere. We're part
of that, you're part of that.

So I think we're quite on trend.

Well, it's wonderful
to speak with you.

We've known each
other for a long time.

And every time I see you,

I'm always happy to chat
with you and you always have

insightful points.

I'm so glad you could
share it with the audience.

Thanks for coming.

Yeah. Thank you.

If you like what you're
seeing in this episode,

please like and subscribe
to see more like it.

We're having episodes here at
CES as well as around the world

at various shows and
back at our home studio.

We look forward to seeing
you in another episode of the

podcast very soon.