Acusensus wins 2023 ITS-A / iMOVE R&D Excellence award

Congratulations to Acusensus Australia, the 2023 winner of the iMOVE-sponsored Excellence in Research and Development award at the 13th ITS Australia Awards, held in Sydney late last week.

Acucensus’ entry was for its Heads-Up system. Launched in 2018. Heads-Up uses either fixed or roadside mobile smart cameras to detect:

• speeding;
• phone use by drivers;
• seatbelt violations;
• lane keeping violations, and
• unregistered vehicles

Images of these violations and the vehicle’s number plate are sent seconds after image capture to police vehicles a few hundred metres up the road, along with a countdown message advising when the vehicle is expected to reach the police vehicle. Police officers can then decide on whether to stop the vehicle, or to pass it along via an infringement notice.

Figures from Queensland and NSW deployment

The Heads-Up system was launched in 2018. Currently it has been deployed in Queensland and NSW, and in pilot programs in the USA. For the data-minded amongst you, here’s some numbers from the Heads-Up system:

NSW

• Six-fold reduction in camera detected mobile phone offences
• A strong decline in road fatalities per 100,000 compared against the rest of Australia

Queensland

• Approximately 55% reduction in phone use behaviour
• 61% reduction in seatbelt non-compliance across the deployed network in 4 months
• In the region of 6,000 Queenslanders detected illegally using their phones and 1,000 front-seat occupants not wearing a seat belt in three weeks.

Changing behaviour

Acusensus founder and Managing Director Alexander Jannink said he was honoured that his company was acknowledged for its contribution to reducing road trauma and fatalities.

“It’s deeply gratifying for our technology to be recognised by the industry for its ability to efficiently change behaviours of road drivers on a larger scale,

“Our goal is to make the roads as safe as possible. Despite improved vehicle designs and road safety improvements, road fatalities have actually been increasing since 2013, largely attributed to distracted driving. Our technology is designed to prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths and road injuries worldwide,” Jannink said.

Previous winners

• CSIRO Data61 wins iMOVE award
• Bosch CAV pilot wins ITS-A / iMOVE R&D Excellence award

About the Excellence in R&D Award

The Excellence in Research and Development Award recognises organisations for technologies that:

• Bring measurable efficiency, safety, and sustainability benefits to society, above those that are achievable without ITS.
• Are durable and likely to have a lasting benefit.
• Can demonstrate scope for future development and collaboration opportunities and potential to be transferred to, and adapted for use, in other parts of the world.
• Is an innovative R&D project that demonstrates new thinking or a new approach.
• Provide a clear development path to deployment and benefits realisation. Who can provide evidence-based results that will have the potential for significant positive impact on further development and deployment of transport technology solutions for Australia.
• Are focused on enhancing transport outcomes with emerging technology. May include activities at the pre-deployment stage.