Tal Kreisler is the CEO and Co-Founding father of NoTraffic, a platform that digitizes highway infrastructure administration, permitting cities to handle their complete grid on the push of a button.
NoTraffic transforms intersections into clever hubs able to real-time site visitors administration. Their AI-powered platform leverages edge computing to course of knowledge regionally, guaranteeing fast response to altering site visitors situations. The expertise contains V2X capabilities for related and autonomous automobiles and accommodates non-connected automobiles and susceptible highway customers (VRUs), offering a complete view of site visitors dynamics. NoTraffic is presently working in additional than 25 U.S. states and in Canada, serving hundreds of thousands of drivers per day.
Are you able to give us a quick overview of NoTraffic and what impressed you to develop an AI-powered mobility platform?
NoTraffic is a first-of-its-kind AI-powered mobility platform, that transforms outdated intersections into good, cloud-connected hubs. The platform leverages AI, edge computing applied sciences and V2X communication to optimize site visitors stream, cut back congestion, and improve highway security, whereas considerably reducing carbon emissions.
The thought behind NoTraffic stemmed from a easy but irritating expertise skilled by one in every of our Co-Founders, Uriel Katz, who discovered himself sitting caught at a pink gentle at an empty intersection late at evening. This pointless ready made him understand that conventional site visitors administration programs had been outdated and inefficient, counting on set timing plans that didn’t adapt to real-time situations. This sparked the concept of making a extra fashionable resolution—one which leverages AI to dynamically handle site visitors based mostly on precise highway utilization and situations.
To handle this concern we based NoTraffic in 2017, with the objective of revolutionizing city mobility and site visitors administration. Regardless of not having a background in site visitors administration, our recent perspective allowed us to suppose creatively and strategy the issue with an out-of-the field resolution. Quick ahead to at the moment, and NoTraffic is on the forefront of redefining city mobility, future-proofing our cities into smarter and extra environment friendly ecosystems.
How does NoTraffic’s AI-powered platform remodel conventional intersections into clever hubs?
NoTraffic’s platform transforms conventional intersections into good, related hubs by integrating AI-driven sensors and edge computing capabilities seamlessly into current infrastructure, leveraging a fusion of superior radar and digital camera expertise to attain 99% detection accuracy, no matter climate situations. These sensors detect and establish all forms of highway customers, from automobiles to micromobility customers, in real-time, enabling the platform to dynamically regulate site visitors alerts, optimizing the stream of site visitors and enhancing security on the roads.
The platform’s real-time communication with a cloud-based system ensures steady studying and updates, permitting intersections to reply intelligently to actual time altering situations, considerably enhancing the effectivity, security, and total stream of site visitors throughout city areas.
The platform is made up of 4 core elements:
- Mobility OS (Working system): A cloud-based dashboard that enables for real-time changes and optimizations, essential for managing fashionable city mobility.
- AI-driven Edge Gadgets: These guarantee steady connectivity, detect highway customers, and hyperlink intersections to the cloud, enabling real-time selections through edge computing and superior analytics.
- Mobility Retailer: A primary-of-its-kind function that capabilities like an app retailer, permitting operators to remotely add and replace mobility functions, guaranteeing adaptability with out pricey {hardware} upgrades.
- 24/7 Help: Steady and dependable operation is assured, with immediate concern decision to take care of security and effectivity.
Are you able to clarify the position of edge computing in your platform and the way it enhances real-time site visitors administration?
Edge computing performs a important position in NoTraffic’s platform by enabling real-time knowledge processing straight on the intersection, with out having to first add knowledge to the cloud. This permits the system to make prompt selections, making site visitors administration each quicker and extra environment friendly. This ensures that site visitors alerts and programs can rapidly adapt to altering situations, reminiscent of a sudden enhance in pedestrian exercise or giving precedence to emergency automobiles. By localizing knowledge processing, edge computing quickens decision-making whereas additionally reducing operational prices by minimizing the necessity for cloud-based assets and extra {hardware}. That is important for managing dynamic city site visitors environments, the place fast reactions are important for optimizing site visitors stream and enhancing security.
How does NoTraffic enhance security at intersections, particularly for susceptible highway customers reminiscent of pedestrians and cyclists?
Yearly, over 700 deaths are brought on by pink gentle runners, together with fatalities amongst pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.
NoTraffic improves security at intersections through the use of AI-powered cameras and radar detection to precisely establish and differentiate between all forms of highway customers, together with pedestrians, cyclists, and scooters. After figuring out them, the platform can regulate site visitors alerts to prioritize the protection of those susceptible teams. For instance, it may well lengthen inexperienced gentle instances or activate pedestrian crossings solely when persons are really ready. The system additionally proactively prevents potential accidents, reminiscent of automobiles working pink lights, by adjusting sign phases in real-time. These measures not solely cut back accidents but additionally create safer intersections, easing congestion on roads, sidewalks, and bike paths.
NoTraffic’s Intersection Security Insights (ISI) is a safety-oriented AI software program software, designed to boost security by correlating site visitors sign phases with automobile actions throughout the cease line, enabling exact monitoring of pink gentle runners. The expertise was deployed at 55 intersections throughout three main city site visitors corridors in Tucson, Arizona, and was in a position to considerably cut back pink gentle working infractions. Over a 3-month interval, ISI enabled the town of Tucson to cut back pink gentle runners by 42% throughout these corridors, equating to 294 lives saved yearly.
In what methods does your platform cut back CO2 emissions and mitigate site visitors congestion in city areas?
As our roads turn out to be more and more crowded with a mixture of vehicles, bikes, and pedestrians, congestion is on the rise—rising by 12% annually. The ensuing gridlock results in dangerous CO2 emissions and a 10.5% enhance in site visitors accidents, making our roads much less protected.
NoTraffic addresses these challenges by optimizing site visitors stream at intersections by pairing AI-driven real-time site visitors evaluation with edge-compute-enabled on-premise sensors that make prompt selections. This easy-to-install software-defined SaaS platform adjusts site visitors gentle patterns based mostly on real-time situations, minimizing idle instances and lowering pointless stops and begins. By enhancing the effectivity of site visitors alerts, NoTraffic decreases the time automobiles spend idling at pink lights, which reduces gas consumption and lowers emissions. NoTraffic empowers Departments of Transportation and different stakeholders to effectively handle rising site visitors quantity and cut back congestion and CO2 emissions, contributing to a extra environment friendly and environmentally pleasant city mobility system.
One in every of NoTraffic’s key options accessible on its Mobility Retailer is Optimization Mode, which leverages predictions to judge hundreds of potential site visitors situations in actual time to optimize site visitors stream, cut back congestions, and enhance total security. When deployed on the College of British Columbia, the answer eased campus site visitors and improved stream at intersections, resulting in a discount in greenhouse fuel emissions. By utilizing edge based mostly computing, NoTraffic was in a position to optimize site visitors stream by calculating hundreds of attainable situations for each roadway person, and figuring out probably the most acceptable one in real-time. Implementation of the answer enabled NoTraffic to cut back carbon emissions by 75 tons per 12 months.
How does NoTraffic combine with related and autonomous automobiles by way of V2X expertise?
NoTraffic’s platform is designed to totally help V2X (Automobile-to-Every thing) communication, enabling seamless integration with related and autonomous automobiles. Via V2X, NoTraffic-equipped intersections can trade real-time knowledge with automobiles, enabling extra environment friendly and safer site visitors administration.
NoTraffic has commercialized V2X expertise with two specialised packages for related and autonomous automobiles: a Security Package deal and an Effectivity Package deal. These packages present units of messages to automobiles utilizing C-V2X or DSRC protocols, supplementing V2X capabilities with knowledge from NoTraffic sensors and offering exterior blind spot data, Sign Part and Timing (SPaT) enhanced driver selections, Purple Gentle Runner (RLR) detection, and different security options.
By integrating V2X communication, NoTraffic’s platform fuses and shares knowledge generated by their proprietary clever edge sensors along with related and autonomous automobiles knowledge and different knowledge sources to handle site visitors flows in actual time and stop potential collisions. The system offers automobiles with important data reminiscent of SPaT, collision warnings, and optimum velocity suggestions. This real-time connectivity ensures smoother site visitors stream, reduces conflicts, and enhances the protected and environment friendly operation of autonomous automobiles.
What measures are in place to make sure the platform additionally accommodates non-connected automobiles and highway customers?
NoTraffic’s platform is constructed to accommodate all highway customers, from vehicles and bikes to pedestrians and emergency automobiles, even in difficult climate situations. Its superior sensors allow municipalities to optimize site visitors stream for all commuters whereas lowering congestion on roads, sidewalks, and bike paths.
The platform’s superior AI sensors can detect and analyse the behaviour of each highway person, no matter their connectivity standing. This ensures that non-connected automobiles and pedestrians are all the time thought-about in real-time site visitors selections.
What challenges have you ever confronted in scaling the deployment of your platform throughout completely different areas?
Scaling the NoTraffic platform throughout completely different areas introduced vital challenges, significantly because of the complexity of integrating a cloud based mostly interface, generally known as our Mobility OS (Working system), with edge units at each intersection.
One of many most important challenges was adapting the cloud-based Mobility OS (Working System) and edge units to fulfill the assorted technical requirements and infrastructure capabilities throughout completely different areas. Every area had its personal algorithm, rules, and necessities, and so the platform needed to be personalised and tailored to fulfill the wants of every area, and guarantee seamless integration with current site visitors programs. Moreover, managing the excessive bandwidth necessities wanted for real-time communication between the cloud and the sting units. To handle this, NoTraffic applied edge computing inside their {hardware}, permitting a good portion of analytics to be processed regionally earlier than sending the outcomes to the cloud for additional evaluation. This decreased bandwidth utilization whereas additionally making the answer more cost effective for each NoTraffic and their clients.
One other problem was the necessity to replace, improve, and keep software program for tons of of hundreds of units throughout numerous areas. To fight this, NoTraffic developed sturdy over the air mechanisms to allow fast deployment of updates, no matter location. These mechanisms be certain that updates are seamlessly distributed and put in throughout all units, minimizing downtime and sustaining consistency in efficiency and reliability.
Safety was additionally a important concern, particularly when coping with infrastructure as important as site visitors administration. NoTraffic applied strict safety protocols tailor-made to every area, guaranteeing that their knowledge remained remoted and guarded, stopping any potential overlap or interference. By leveraging superior cloud safety measures, the corporate ensured that they had been in a position to keep the integrity and confidentiality of information, whereas complying with native rules.
Via these methods, NoTraffic efficiently navigated the complexities of creating and scaling a platform that mixes {hardware} and software program, in the end delivering a dependable, safe, and cost-effective mobility resolution throughout completely different areas.
How do you envision the way forward for site visitors administration and concrete infrastructure evolving within the subsequent decade?
The way forward for site visitors administration and concrete infrastructure will probably be pushed by the widespread adoption of software-enabled units that improve the sustainability and effectivity of cities. Much like how Tesla reinvented vehicles, these units are set to reinvent the remainder of the mobility ecosystem. Superior sensors with built-in communication capabilities, highly effective computing, and the capability to analyse huge quantities of information will turn out to be normal. These sensors will provide a variety of providers that may be up to date, adjusted, and repaired remotely, guaranteeing steady enchancment and minimizing the necessity for bodily intervention. The shift in direction of these good, software-driven units will simplify the modernization of infrastructure, cut back waste, and minimize down on the necessity for in depth {hardware}. Visitors units and programs will perform extra like smartphones, the place options could be personalised, activated, up to date, or repaired remotely, making infrastructure upgrades smoother, extra reasonably priced, and fewer intimidating for municipalities.
One of many key benefits of this expertise is the power to combination knowledge and quantify numerous parameters like site visitors enhancements, security enhancements, and emissions reductions. It might additionally allow the identification of developments and help predictive analytics, providing insights into potential outcomes of particular insurance policies earlier than they’re applied. For instance, the financial influence of site visitors delays could possibly be measured, or before-and-after research may assess the effectiveness of site visitors administration methods – one thing that’s unattainable with present programs.
By reimagining transportation programs with these methods, future city areas can obtain enhanced security and improved mobility whereas considerably lowering their environmental footprint, resulting in extra sustainable and livable cities.
What position do you see AI enjoying in the way forward for good cities and mobility options?
AI will play a serious position in the way forward for good cities and mobility options by way of knowledge aggregation and decision-making. Due to AI-powered applied sciences being utilized in site visitors administration, cities can now use knowledge to quantify numerous parameters, reminiscent of site visitors enhancements, security enhancements, and emission reductions. This knowledge offers a transparent image of the effectiveness of various site visitors administration methods, enabling cities to take advantage of impactful and helpful selections, tailor-made to the precise wants of every space.
AI additionally allows the identification of developments and helps predictive analytics, providing insights into potential outcomes if particular insurance policies are applied. For instance, utilizing AI cities can now measure the financial influence of site visitors delays, or perform earlier than and after research to measure the effectiveness and success of latest initiatives. By with the ability to again up selections with concrete knowledge, cities are in a position to pinpoint issues and implement focused options, one thing that will beforehand have been unattainable to attain.