Trafficnow, the roadside solution SME, is the first winner of the IMPACT Connected Car Pioneers Award

Submitted by David Seoane on 10 March 2019

The SME accelerated by IMPACT Connected Car, led by FundingBox, is the best performing participant from the first batch out of 13 projects, and has received a €15.000 award

Robert Nordentoft, Trafficnow General Manager, at 4YFN 2019 in Barcelona

Trafficnow, accelerated by IMPACT Connected Car (ICCar), coordinated by FundingBox, was selected as the winner of the ICCAR Pioneers Award. The startup provides design and distribution of robust roadside equipment and comprehensive centralized solutions for big data treatment through the use of connected floating car data in order to optimize mobility in junctions, roundabouts, work zones and other roadside challenges.

The general manager of the SME, Robert Nordentoft, comments that for any company dedicated to intelligent transportation systems and mobility is imperative to find their place in the connected car sphere. Innovative projects in novel technologies with no immediate return on investment are a significant endeavor for an SME like theirs.

The IMPACT Connected Car programme helped accelerate their connected car project, and brought it to life through fundingmentorshipand network. Having a solution ready by the end of 2018 marked the future of Trafficnow, and without IMPACT they would not have been where they are today.

The company combines decades of traffic sensor experience, with know-how in research and development within the world of telecommunications. These advantages put them in a position to offer the roadside equipment that meets customer demands and satisfies requirements of quality and technology.

Making an impact in the new mobility paradigm

As Robert Nordentoft, from Trafficnow, affirms “mobility is changing and there are exciting new technologies out there that, if used the right way, can help contributing to improve information, mobility and smarter cities. Our goal as a company is to take a proactive part in this shift of paradigm; we aim to match technologies with real meaningful outputs, and find innovative ways to improve mobility. Obviously, this can only be achieved through partnerships with the important players in the industry”.

Trafficnow is a technology company that provides a system of devices and software that gathers data about vehicle travel. The flagship product collects data and calculates travel time, speed, origin and destination data; key components for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS).

The company was an early pioneer in applying Bluetooth probe technology for transportation solutions. It was founded in 2010, headquartered in BarcelonaSpain, and has a regional office in SantiagoChile.

Trafficnow offers a mean of tracking vehicles to provide information about the time of travel as well as the distribution of the traffic; both key elements for road administrators worldwide in their day-to-day obligations such as operation, maintenance and planning.

DeepBlue v2t is the third generation roadside product fully designed by Trafficnow and is the number one product worldwide in terms of performance, not just in capture rate, but also in features, flexibility and robustness.

DeepBlue v2t has in the past few years developed from being a Bluetooth tracking device to a vehicle tracking device embedding new technologies over the course of time, giving Trafficnow an additional edge in the marketplace. This trajectory has taken the company from Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to BLE and now also V2X-technology.

In software analytics, Trafficnow has also evolved over the years from pure Bluetooth-based travel time analytics to a multi-technology platform for traffic management and infrastructure planning in cities and metropolitan areas, serving both as a standalone tool as well as an engine for integrating with other traffic management systems.

Trafficnow, the best out of 13 ICCar projects

As the winner of the first batch, Trafficnow showed the best performance among the 13 projects presented. The criteria used to evaluate the different projects was based on a score of technical, business and corporate performance after the coaching of experts on these 3 areas. Trafficnow successfully completed the three stages of the IMPACT Connected Car Acceleration Programme within the programme portfolio.

The winner affirmed that the sector as a whole has a number of challengesbeyond just the pure technology, such as, reaching a consensus on ethical issues in autonomous driving, the future of car ownershipcombustion versus electrical versus hybrid or even the introduction of flying taxis. The debate involves a host of industries and players, as drones become cars, automotive becomes service, communication becomes mobility, internet search engines introduce autonomous driving, and a series of forces are shifting the whole ecosystem beyond what we can even imagine.

Finally, the company sees the future with optimism. In an industry that is growing around the connected car, any contemporary company involved in mobility needs to ask themselves “what is my role in the connected car uprising?” The spokesman of Trafficnow states that as changes are introduced in multitudes, and by many. They will embrace the disruptions, stay in the game and introduce their own innovate grain of sand when the opportunity presents itself.

“Trafficnow is taking part in this movement; we have picked a starting place, and we can introduce an award-winning project with great pride. The award is the ideal companion and a great acknowledgement when we present our case as a player in the world of connected cars”, said Robert Nordentoft.

The ICCar Pioneers Award Ceremony at 4YFN 2019 in Barcelona

Robert Nordentoft received the IMPACT Connected Car Pioneers Awardduring 4YFN 2019, an event of Mobile World Congress 2019 between the 25th-27th February 2019 in Barcelona. The ceremony took place on Wednesday 27th, and IMPACT Connected Car Project Manager at FundingBox, David Seoane, presented the programme before the pitch of Robert Nordentoft about Trafficnow. Then, he received the award handed by Olivier Lenz, from FIA Region I.

From left to right: Olivier Lenz (FIA Region I), Robert Nordentoft (Trafficnow), and David Seoane (FundingBox)

IMPACT Connected Car aimes at creating value link-chains for innovation in the Connected Car open space, with vehicle, infrastructure and device and TelCo interactions and consumer and business services, through the acceleration and smartization of over 60 disruptive SMEs. The project will distribute €2.1 million funding, equity-free, and will contribute to disrupt the European mobility industry through its community of innovators, with more than 800 members.

IMPACT Connected Car is led by top players in the fields of innovation and automobiles, including ISDIFundingBoxMobile World Capital BarcelonaFerrovial ServiciosCTAGFIAGroupe PSA, the FIWARE FoundationPARPInseroMov’eoMSAKLPNTArgusHEVOLittle Electric Car, and Botcar.

This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 731343.

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