Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SPECK (Smart Pedestrian Crosswalk for Increased Traffic Safety at Uncontrolled Crossings)
Période du rapport: 2019-12-01 au 2020-05-31
The purpose of the project was to find out the base feature configuration for the Smart Pedestrian Crosswalk (SPC) and establish a cooperation agreement for further technology evaluation. SPC is an intelligent infrastructure device that enables automatic communication between all communication-ready traffic (DSRC, V2X) entities to improve traffic flow and safety, as well as provide additional data-based solutions for future smart city applications. This is important as every year, more than 135,000 people are seriously injured, and 25,000 killed on European roads. Wrong decisions made by road users due to the lack of information about the traffic environment is the primary cause of traffic accidents. SPC supports EU’s strategic objective to reduce both, traffic deaths and serious injuries by 50% between 2020 and 2030. SPC can be viewed as a key enabling technology for autonomous mobility as its novel object recognition platform utilising the most modern sensor technologies can pioneer vehicles accurate and reliable perception of its surroundings near uncontrolled crossings.
During the SME Instrument Phase 1 project, Bercman conducted a feasibility study that included the technological as well as commercialisation aspect of the innovation. The objectives of the feasibility study were the following:
* Conduct a market development study;
* Elaborate an optimal IP strategy;
* Further develop the company’s business plan.
During the SME Instrument Phase 1 project, Bercman conducted a feasibility study that included the technological as well as commercialisation aspect of the innovation. The objectives of the feasibility study were the following:
* Conduct a market development study;
* Elaborate an optimal IP strategy;
* Further develop the company’s business plan.
The feasibility exercise helped enormously gather market and customer understanding to design a much better value proposition. The main takeaways were:
1) Market development study: So far, we have developed our system with training data gathered from Northern European countries. Entering new markets outside Northern Europe requires additional training data to refine our AI.To find the next market for our smart infrastructure device, we set the following requirements: (1) the market should have high risk perception among road users, and (2) be suitable with our (B2G-oriented) business model.Our initial hypothesis was to enter Italy and/or Spain but on further investigation, these countries did not meet our set market requirements. Considering all the set requirements, Croatia (HR) fit our needs the best. We short-listed the most suitable contacts and approached them with a proposal for technology evaluation. Among interested entities, the municipality of Tisno marked interest, and signed an agreement with Bercman to evaluate our technology. In order to achieve a lower price for the mass-produced commercial product, we interviewed experts to determine the most desired features to be able to offer a more affordable base configuration. We also determined that SPC needs a more modular design to be able to be implemented on existing roadside infrastructure, which is currently not fulfilled with our design and needs to be optimised during the EIC Accelerator project.
2) We set an optimal IP strategy considering our future markets.We reached the initial conclusion that Bercman is a young startup company and costs are an important factor as we go forward. It was decided that most of the IP would be protected under the company’s internal know-how (trade secrets). For future reference, we concluded that for a small company like Bercman, it is better to put all your eggs in one basket than to become involved in litigation in numerous jurisdictions. Thus, the geographical scope of our future patent applications from our inventions is geared towards our main target markets.
3) The business plan development task resulted in a validated strategy for overcoming the major market entry hurdles. We added a new revenue stream to service the growing “As-a-Service” business approach if needed. Accordingly, we adjusted our country-specific go-to-market strategies and clarified the required competences and resources. Analysing the targeted markets, we validated that these markets are focused on furthering their Smart City developments. We also determined potential risks through the feasibility study and lined out the preliminary mitigation measures to ensure successful commercialisation.
Ultimately, the collected insights and data gave us the confidence to take the next step in the road towards the market, which we expect to reach late 2022 or early 2023.
1) Market development study: So far, we have developed our system with training data gathered from Northern European countries. Entering new markets outside Northern Europe requires additional training data to refine our AI.To find the next market for our smart infrastructure device, we set the following requirements: (1) the market should have high risk perception among road users, and (2) be suitable with our (B2G-oriented) business model.Our initial hypothesis was to enter Italy and/or Spain but on further investigation, these countries did not meet our set market requirements. Considering all the set requirements, Croatia (HR) fit our needs the best. We short-listed the most suitable contacts and approached them with a proposal for technology evaluation. Among interested entities, the municipality of Tisno marked interest, and signed an agreement with Bercman to evaluate our technology. In order to achieve a lower price for the mass-produced commercial product, we interviewed experts to determine the most desired features to be able to offer a more affordable base configuration. We also determined that SPC needs a more modular design to be able to be implemented on existing roadside infrastructure, which is currently not fulfilled with our design and needs to be optimised during the EIC Accelerator project.
2) We set an optimal IP strategy considering our future markets.We reached the initial conclusion that Bercman is a young startup company and costs are an important factor as we go forward. It was decided that most of the IP would be protected under the company’s internal know-how (trade secrets). For future reference, we concluded that for a small company like Bercman, it is better to put all your eggs in one basket than to become involved in litigation in numerous jurisdictions. Thus, the geographical scope of our future patent applications from our inventions is geared towards our main target markets.
3) The business plan development task resulted in a validated strategy for overcoming the major market entry hurdles. We added a new revenue stream to service the growing “As-a-Service” business approach if needed. Accordingly, we adjusted our country-specific go-to-market strategies and clarified the required competences and resources. Analysing the targeted markets, we validated that these markets are focused on furthering their Smart City developments. We also determined potential risks through the feasibility study and lined out the preliminary mitigation measures to ensure successful commercialisation.
Ultimately, the collected insights and data gave us the confidence to take the next step in the road towards the market, which we expect to reach late 2022 or early 2023.
Being still an early-stage startup it is hard to demonstrate larger socio-economic impacts yet but we foresee great potential for that.