It’s that time of year! Join us for the next eight days for what’s become an OurCrowd tradition: highlighting during Hanukkah — the festival of lights – the top eight Israeli tech trends that spark the interest of our investment team and what they see on the ground.

Trend #3: Autonomous Cars

Behind the trend:

Science fiction writers and fans have been dreaming up self-driving cars for almost 100 years. In July, CNBC reported Google’s claim that autonomous cars will finally be available to consumers as early as 2020. But, of course, as with any discussion on artificial intelligence these days, the debate continues over whether we humans are ready for cars to drive themselves. Relying on cars to brake and steer may offer us a false sense of security and lead to more accidents, or, as hackers showed us last summer, the more we rely on our car’s digital capacities the more vulnerable we may be to virtual, invisible pranksters or villains.

What’s up next:

It seems that nothing is putting the brakes on driverless cars (well, except that one time when Google’s self-driving car was pulled over for driving too slowly), and the Israeli startup scene is helping drive the industry forward into safer territory with companies like Mobileye, a technology company that develops vision-based advanced driver assistance systems providing warnings for collision prevention and mitigation.

As connected cars become mainstream, the digital disruption of the automotive industry creates a growing threat for car-hacking, say the founders of Argus Cyber Security, whose ready-to-embed cybersecurity solutions prevent a vehicle’s critical systems from being hacked. Cybersecurity is definitely going to be a particular focus and top priority for the automotive industry in 2016, as it’s more commercially pressing for today’s cars, not just cars of the future.

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Check back with us each night of Hanukkah to learn about another tech trend sparking the Startup Nation!

To find out more about innovative technologies and investment opportunities on our platform, contact our Investor Relations team or visit our website.