Replacing passive lane reflectors with connected devices will transform highways from dumb to smart, promises Sharar Bahiri, Founder, Chairman & CTO of Valerann. Improving highway safety is the driving force behind Valerann’s quest to see their devices installed on highways around the world.
An Active Device Instead of a Passive Reflector #
Their solar-powered units include radar, capacitive, and magnetic vibration sensors. It provides visual communications to drivers via multi-colored LEDs. At the same time, it wirelessly communicates to roadside units via DSRC (Dedicated Short-Range Communications), but he also indicates support for 5G.
Bahiri says that direct sensor to car communications will improve lane keeping in situations where a driver (or the car, in the case of a driverless) cannot see the road. The magic is in the back-end where Valerann’s cloud-based software makes sense of what could be tens of millions of simultaneous updates from the road-mounted sensors.
Bahiri indicates the power of their system comes from being able to take the data and perform predictive analytics in their cloud back-end. For instance, Bahiri suggests a municipality could proactively send a salt truck out to preemptively melt black ice.
A Pay As You Go Business Model #
Ultimately, Valerann’s is selling a traffic management system. As such, Valerann provides the hardware at no cost; hardware which Bahiri estimates will last 7 years. This compares favorably to the two-year lifespan that Bahiri suggests for passive reflectors (one estimate suggests repairs on passive reflectors are needed in as few as 6-months)¹.
The total cost of ownership for a typical department of transportation ranges from 1/4 to 1/8th what it would be for competing approaches, according to Bahiri. Depending upon the volume cost of each unit and the number of roadside units required, the capital costs shouldered by Valerann could be significant, as in California alone, there are as many as 20 million passive reflectors.
Added 9/13/20 – Quote via email from Shahar Barhiri regarding capital costs and ROI
“We suggest deployments based on the amount of traffic each road sees. This means that you are likely to see a 10:1 replacement on average. In highly congested roads it will be 1:2 or 1:3, in less congested roads or roads only with 1 lane (the vast majority of roads) you will only need to replace 1:20. In terms of repayment, we expect to see strong RoI from increase capacity (circa 5-10%), increase safety (20-30%), and increase toll revenues (10-15%). This can translate into both actual and societal benefits of well over $300M. Of course, we usually work directly with small private toll road operators. There the numbers are much more concrete and we expect to provide a full return within 1-2 years.”
Valerann’s device is designed for relatively fast installation. Given that it is solar-powered and wireless, the installation consists of drilling a hole, epoxying in a base, and leveling the sensor. It is low-profile with only 7 mm protruding above the road surface. The mechanically robust design can support the weight of a 60-ton vehicle.
With installations in Israel, Spain, the UK, and a pilot on I-95 in the United States, Valerann appears ready to change the rules of the road.
Interview Highlights: #
- 01:35 Their back-end provides real-time traffic via data gathered from their sensors. More importantly, they provide predictive information to understand what the traffic will be.
- 01:58 Their analytics means they can predict, for instance, the formation of black ice. The municipality could then send out salt spreaders before the water turns to ice.
- 02:17 What prevents black ice from forming on Valerann’s device?
- 02:27 Their sensors are very robust and have the ability to withstand 60 tons of pressure and direct hist from snowplows.
- 02:42 Even if the sensors’ solar cells are covered with ice, they can communicate for 150 days.
- 03:00 The sensors communicate to roadside units. They support DSRC, but Bahiri indicates they are flexible and bullish about 5G (C-V2X)
- 03:54 The sensors will provide real-time information directly to cars to help stay in their respective lanes. TThese would also be able to provide information to the Roadside Units in a few milliseconds
- 05:07 Bahiri estimates the total cost of ownership will drop from $2 to $4M per mile to $500k with their solution.
- 05:35 It will operate in tunnels via the power that typically exists in tunnels.
- 06:57 Passive reflectors get replaced about every two years, whereas Valerann’s devices have a seven-year life expectancy.
¹ Caltrans is phasing out the Bott’s Dots partially because of the high cost of maintenance.
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