Denso Builds Smart Mobility Ecosystem for the Beta District
By Bruce Edwards
The municipality hopes the partnership will help it to shape the future of smart mobility and ultimately make roads safer and more efficient.
The City of Dublin, Ohio, is working with mobility supplier, Denso, to create a smart mobility ecosystem in the Columbus suburb.
The company, which develops advanced technology and components for nearly every vehicle make and model on the road, is investing $1.42 million in the launch and is working with a coalition of municipal, state, business and academic partners.
Mobility mission
Denso’s aims include testing and implementing infrastructure technologies, creating value-added mobility services, and gathering previously untapped data that are vital to increasing road and pedestrian safety and reducing travel times.
It is currently working with the following partners in Ohio to implement the ecosystem:
- City of Dublin, an innovative municipality that will beta-test a strategically targeted transportation corridor that includes both roundabouts and signalised intersections;
- Ohio State University, whose researchers at its Centre for Automotive Research will provide a range of smart mobility solutions, including data services and analytics;
- Connected signals, creators of predictive V2I technology that makes cars, transit, pedestrians and cyclists safer and more fuel-efficient;
- Derq USA, an artificial intelligence (AI) platform developer that integrates with existing traffic and sensor systems and powers real-time advanced analytics and connected vehicle safety applications to help cities and road authorities eliminate road accidents and better manage traffic;
- No Traffic, an AI-powered traffic signal platform that solves today’s traffic management challenges while preparing cities for the connected and autonomous era.
"The City of Dublin has a long history of innovation in service delivery and community development," said Megan O’Callaghan, City of Dublin public works director. "This collaboration with Denso demonstrates an important partnership we are actively engaging in to shape the future of smart mobility, which will ultimately make roads safer and more efficient."
The technologies being used in Dublin enable the collection of real-time traffic data, measurement of transportation patterns, identification of new economic opportunities, optimized governance, and proactive responses to potential issues and crises.
"Creating smart mobility ecosystems in urban, suburban and rural communities is vital to better understanding how things and people move in different environments and ensuring transportation is as safe, sustainable and efficient as possible," said Roger Berg, vice president of research and development, North America, Denso.
"In this project, we and our partners are leveraging advanced technologies to improve road infrastructure, better identify traffic patterns, and gather and analyse key data that can ultimately increase safety, reduce congestion and provide better transportation services to a wide range of geographies."
Deborah Scherer, managing director, global trade and investment at Columbus 2020, said they are encouraged by Denso’s investment in the Columbus Region. "Its commitment to infrastructure technology will continue to enhance the strong mobility ecosystem and further the innovation capacity in this area, now and in the future," she said.