See.Sense & Vodafone in ‘world first’ monitoring of near misses and cycle use in Dublin
Near misses, collisions and cycle route activity will be monitored in Dublin City Centre thanks to a partnership between the City Council, Vodafone and See.Sense.
Real-time sensor data will be crowdsourced from bikes in Dublin, with a view to helping the city better integrate bikes into mobility planning. Devices created by Northern Irish cycle tech company See.Sense will be fitted to bikes from August and data will be gathered over Vodafone’s NB-IOT network in what is being described as a world-first.
The See.Sense devices use advanced sensor technology to gather crowdsourced data on road surface conditions, collision and near-miss events as well as route activity. Data is processed on the device using AI, providing insights for the city, as well as for the operators of city bike share schemes and scooter companies. The project is being announced at Velo-City, currently underway in Dublin.
“We are delighted to partner with See.Sense on their new smart cycling solution connected via Vodafone’s Narrowband-IoT network,” said Debbie Power, IoT Country Manager, Vodafone Ireland. “This game-changing cycling solution has the ability to send real-time data on bike movements, road quality issues like potholes and collision and near-miss events. Currently, battery drain and connectivity in built-up urban areas are issues for connected mobility. NB-IoT offers a low power solution whilst providing increased penetration though walls and buildings meaning months of battery life on shared bikes, scooters and e-bikes connected on See.Sense’s technology. This will enable a seamless end-to-end connectivity experience, meaning cities, councils and shared bike operators can capture and manage the vast amounts of mobility data to design a safer, more efficient infrastructure for cyclists and other road users.”
Jamie Cudden, Dublin City Council’s Smart City Programme Manager, said: “We are excited to be working with See.Sense and Vodafone to pilot the next generation of smart and connected bike sensors that have the potential to transform the quality and range of data gathered from city bike sharing schemes in a way that will support future city planning. This partnership builds on our existing relationships with See.Sense on their smart bike lights and also with Vodafone’s NB-IOT connectivity and innovation programme. So we are delighted to be combining these partnerships in a way that will benefit Dublin’s cycling community.”
Philip McAleese, CEO of See.Sense, added: “Our city bike offering allows a low-cost, low powered way to communicate data over a NB-IoT network. Combined with our patented sensor technology enabling sensor detection of road surface and other behaviours, this is genuinely game-changing for the industry. We’re excited to launch it here in Dublin, showcasing six years of R&D in state of the art use of sensors and connectivity and building on our track record of successful commercialisation.”
See.Sense – who was a Winner of the Smart Dublin Cycling Challenge Phases 1 and 2 in 2017 – continues to be at the forefront of cycling tech and data. Versions of the sensors in the city bikes are already used in the company’s consumer bike lights, which are now sold into more than 70 countries world-wide, and being used on city projects in Manchester, Antwerp as well as Dublin as part of large scale IoT project called Synchronicity.
