Speed bumps save lives…. we all know that. That is why, although we hate them, we still tolerate them on our roads. Installing a speed bump greatly reduces serious accidents and is associated with a 53%-60% reduction in injury or death in vehicle accidents.
However, by their design, the old speed bumps are uncomfortable for everybody at any speed, and they penalize all drivers, although very few of them are speeding. Out of 100 drivers, we are unnecessarily punishing 95 of them. We believe that this is simply not fair, and it causes the stop-start effect (when drivers almost stop at the speed bump, and then accelerate back to their previous speed) that has many negative side-effects.
Actually, what saves the lives is not the speed bumps themselves but slowing the vehicles.
We believe that there must be a better way to do this, and this is the reason why we’ve set as our mission to completely redesign the Speed Bumps, more than 110 years after the first Speed Bump was implemented in Chatham, New Jersey in 1906.
A car passing over Smart Bump within speed limit – a flat road
We came up with a solution that has all the benefits of the speed bumps, but none of the negative side effects. Our intelligent speed bumps have the same effect as the old speed bumps; hence they save lives, but without the associated costs. That is why we call them Smart Bumps.
How do our Smart Bumps work?
We measure your speed before you pass over the speed bump, and if you drive slowly, you go over a flat road. However, if you are speeding, you hit the Smart Bump, the same way as you would hit an old speed bump. It’s that simple.
Our team comes from different backgrounds. We strongly believe that this is our big asset as we see things from different perspective and come up with solutions that have the best from all worlds. By combining the best from mechanical engineering with the latest in electronics and SW engineering, we designed the Speed Bump that has all the advantages of the traditional Speed Bump, but none of the drawbacks. It hits the bad drivers, but is nice with the good ones.
As we have put a ‘brain’ in the good old Speed Bump, we can have a lot of additional features:
· We can let the emergency vehicles pass over the Speed Bump with higher speeds;
· We can change the speed limit dynamically during the day;
· We can use Speed Bumps for higher speeds, up to 60 km/h;
What is the final product of the company?
The final product of the company is an intelligent speed bump, or a ‘Smart Bump’, a speed bump that will behave as the traditional speed bumps for the fast drivers, but is level with the road for the slow ones, significantly improving the driving experience.
Who are our users?
Our users are all drivers. Everybody that drives a car and is tortured every time he or she drives to work, or to their friends, or to their favorite mall is our user and will benefit from the Smart Bumps.
But our users are also pedestrians and inhabitants living around the speed bumps. Everybody that experiences pollution from old speed bumps is our user.
What is the status of the project at the moment?
We worked very hard for a long time and we’ve came up with several prototypes that we tested and improved. Currently we have several pieces working on municipality streets for about a year, and we started the first small series production.
What comes next?
We are working hard to find suitable partner network to help you seeing the Smart Bumps on the roads near you.