Velodyne Lidar Adds the "Smart" to Blue City Technology's Smart City Solution

The Blue City Technology solution, equipped with Velodyne’s lidar sensors, helps improve road safety and mobility by providing real-time multi-modal traffic data and analytics to traffic lights.

Blue City Technology, an Automated with Velodyne partner, uses Velodyne Ultra Puck sensors to collect reliable, detailed traffic data about road users, including vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists, while preserving anonymity. Velodyne’s lidar sensors do not identify individuals’ facial characteristics, a growing concern for civic applications. Lidar has an advantage in privacy over camera-only systems because lidar does not record details like hair and skin color. It is becoming more apparent that adding lidar to traffic systems is adding the “smart” to city traffic and pedestrian infrastructure.

Lidar can scan a large crowd of pedestrians and detect general but critical information such as movement trajectory, whether a child or person has fallen or is acting out of the ordinary, all without disclosing individual features. The Blue City Technology solution monitors roadway intersections so traffic systems can prioritize safe crossing of pedestrians and cyclists and better manage overall vehicle flow. The 360-degree field of view of the Ultra Puck enables the Blue City Technology system to use just one sensor in most cases to cover an entire intersection.

The Blue City Technology solution is deployed in multiple countries, including for traffic monitoring in Montreal and by the city of Kelowna, B.C. as part of a 5G Smart City solution in partnership with Rogers Communications and University of British Columbia. The Kelowna initiative seeks to improve how people move in the downtown area, increasing pedestrian and cyclist safety.