Safe Space – Valeo · SUGAR project 2018/19

The project · from brief to prototype

What happened, step by step.

01

Challenge

Denser city traffic and new mobility types demand more attention from everyone on the road. Valeo asked the team to enhance drivers' mobility experience in smart cities using Valeo's own resources.

02

What the team learned

Lack of communication and misunderstandings between road users cause much of the trouble. The target users are people who feel unsafe or want extra support on the road.

03

What they built

Safe Space is a product family that creates a virtual zone around each road user. Bus units detect people, warn cyclists visually and alert the driver; bike units detect vehicles and add LED wings and a rear display. Devices talk via vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity.

04

Impact

The collected data could help cities and municipalities improve traffic infrastructure precisely where it is needed.

Full project text

The team’s original texts from the project page.

Safe Space is a virtual zone surrounding every traffic participant, granting them the physical space on the street they need to feel and be safe.

Challenge

The increasing amount of traffic in cities and the growing variety of mobility types forces drivers to be more attentive they previously did. Further complicating the situation, municipalities around the globe are now adopting more ecologically-friendly stances to decrease effects on the environment. With this changing business and emergence of new technologies, Valeo is facing challenges in its field of business. So they gave us a simple but tough challenge: Enhance the mobility experience of drivers in smart cities by using Valeo’s competitive resources.

Solution

Lack of communication and misunderstandings are causing a lot of trouble on the roads. We developed a system in which both vulnerable users (such as bikes and e-scooters) and heavy traffic participants (such as buses) can equip themselves with a device out of the Safe Space product family. Through sensors and connectivity, road users can communicate with one another through contextual warnings. And share information in real time.

Impact

Safe Space makes others more aware of one’s presence when someone is about to enter their safe space.

It takes care of dangers for every single traffic participant and takes away a lot of traffic related stress.

In this way, it reduces the uncertainties, stress and misunderstandings that occur when travelling in the city by having the nice side effect of a safer road.

The gathered data can also be provided to governments and municipalities to optimize their infrastructure from which everyone can benefit.

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