Sony Semiconductor Solutions has deployed AI-powered vision sensors in Lakewood, Colorado, and San Jose, California, as part of pilot programmes designed to enhance traffic safety and urban mobility management. The Sony subsidiary will showcase both smart city deployments at the ITS World Congress in Atlanta this week.
In Lakewood, intelligent sensors support the city’s ‘Vision Zero’ initiative. The technology apparently demonstrates real-time detection of vehicles and pedestrians at high-risk intersections and mid-block corridors. It continues to operate effectively in challenging lighting and weather conditions—for example, a foggy night—enabling municipal governments to identify dangerous situations before collisions take place.
Meanwhile, San Jose has been testing the system for continuous traffic monitoring, replacing previous surveys that were limited in nature and only captured days’ worth of data at a time. Initial evaluations in the city demonstrated accuracy of over 95% in capturing real-time traffic dynamics, offering local officials greater insight into long-term traffic patterns and fluctuations between seasons.
Sony’s technology is powered by edge AI, processing data locally rather than via cloud computing. According to the press release, this enables applications beyond traffic management—for instance parking space monitoring, illegal dumping detection and crosswork safety.
“At Sony, we believe the future of mobility starts with seeing the world more clearly,” said Yu Kitamura, Senior Business Development Manager, in a statement. “By combining high-performance AI capable intelligent vision sensors with data applications, we’re helping cities like Lakewood and San José respond to rapidly evolving transportation patterns and infrastructure needs.”
The system will cost “just a few thousand dollars”, approximately half that of competing alternatives, and can be powered with renewable energy including solar. Live demonstrations, data dashboards, and technical briefings will be available at the ITS World Congress.
