the engine gone?’ They told me that in 
Porsche cars, the engine is 
at the rear.”
In 2018, the company 
hired a vice president of 
business development, 
Eitan Grosbard, who was 
previously responsible for 
mergers and acquisitions at 
Gett.
“I had known the automobile 
industry, but from a different angle,” 
Grosbard said. “I have entered a 
whole new world of software and data 
monetization.”
In 2019, the company has gained two 
major investors: Porsche and Union 
Motors, Toyota’s importer into Israel. 

DETROIT’S ROLE
In October of that year, Detroit had 
become one of several cities around 
the world to collaborate with Tactile 
Mobility on a proof of concept. 
“The automaker was the one that 
has put this whole story in motion,” 
Grosbard said. “Its people said that 
they were already selling cars to 
municipalities, but they wanted to start 
selling service as well.
“It was the first time that I wasn’t 
working with a city alone,” said 
Grosbard, who added that a similar type 
of collaboration is already taking place 
in Germany, with unnamed partners.
In recent years, the city would rely 
on citizens using the SeeClickFix app, 
and a team of people actively searching, 
to know about road deficiencies. The 
project’s manager on the city’s side, 
Samuel Krassenstein, said that Tactile 
Mobility’s data had changed things.

“Traditionally, when we’d do 
a road analysis, it was based 
on a visual assessment of the 
road, but that rating system 
isn’t necessarily aligned with 
where drivers are facing the 
most pain,” he said. “This type 
of analysis is based on ride 
quality. The combination of 
them ends up working very well.”
Krassenstein said that the project 
was made unique by the passive form of 
data collection.
“We did not tell our staff in our vehicles 
where to drive. We just 
let them go on their daily 
business. We’re pretty happy 
with the coverage of the city 
we got just on 20 vehicles.
” 
While the city currently 
receives raw-data monthly 
reports, Krassenstein 
expressed hope that in the 
future, the data would be more “real-time” 
and “consumer-ready.
”
Grosbard said that a relevant system 
would be ready by Q3 2021.
Mizrachi said that even for cities with 
limited budgets, the system would be a 
worthwhile investment:
“When we installed a similar system 
in our hometown Haifa, they said, ‘We 
know that our roads are completely ruined. 
Instead of paying you, we could fix a 
couple of potholes that we know about.
’ We 
explained to them that some roads are bad 
enough to make a car crash, even because 
of a small pothole — if its edge is steep 
enough, or if it’s exactly on the tire track. 
Especially if you have tons of potholes, you 
should know which would cause the most 
damage.
” 

Last year, both Porsche and BMW 
announced that they would use Tactile 
Mobility’s technology in their cars. 
Last December, two more investors 
have joined in: Nexteer, a company that 
provides solutions to automakers in the 
steering department, and The Group 
Ventures, a Canadian venture capital fund 
for special AI-based technologies. 
“We are preparing for another 
investment round this year,” Grosbard said.
Today, the company has almost 30 
workers. The interim CEO for the past few 
months has been Rani Plaut, a well-known 
entrepreneur, and a board member and an 
adviser to the company for several years.

PROBABLE COMPETITORS
Both Grosbard and Mizrachi 
acknowledged that their system’s success 
may provoke a stiff competition but 
showed optimism.
“Competition only strengthens the 
notion that the product is needed,” 
Grosbard said. “That way, potential 
clients will also know that they aren’t 
dependent on us alone.”
Mizrachi said that the quality of Tactile 

Video and data from the pilot program

was made unique by the passive form of 

14 | FEBRUARY 25 • 2021 

continued on page 16

continued from page 13

Samuel 
Krassenstein

The Tactile 
Processor 

Eitan 
Grosbard

OUR COMMUNITY

ON THE COVER

