Ouster, Inc., a provider of lidar sensors for the automotive, industrial, robotics and smart infrastructure industries, announced Tuesday that it was awarded a $2 million contract to deploy its Ouster BlueCity traffic management solution in Chattanooga to improve roadway safety and reduce congestion.
Following a pilot at 12 intersections, the city of Chattanooga will expand Ouster’s BlueCity solution to over 120 intersections, covering the downtown area. With this expansion, Ouster BlueCity will be the largest deployment of lidar detection technology for traffic and pedestrian safety in the United States. The project will combine digital lidar sensors and edge AI at each intersection to manage traffic flow, detect and analyze safety incidents and provide detection for vehicle-to-everything communications.
“Chattanooga is leading the country in adopting smart city technology to improve our roadways, and with it, the safety and quality of life of our citizens,” said Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly. “Using American lidar and advanced perception software from Ouster, we are building the largest lidar-powered smart traffic network in the United States. This technology will enable optimized traffic signal management on roads and intersections to improve traffic flow and provide data we can use to improve pedestrian safety."
Officials said, "Ouster BlueCity is a turnkey solution that delivers more intelligent signal actuation at intersections while generating an analytics data stream that gives traffic operators and city planners high quality insights about their public corridors. Ouster BlueCity combines digital lidar with perception software and data analytics, enabling the creation of a real-time 3D digital traffic twin of an intersection or road. The solution automates data collection in the cloud to monitor road events more accurately for vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists, enabling quick safety interventions and long-term planning optimizations. Using deep learning AI perception, Ouster BlueCity delivers reliability and advanced object classification and detection for a range of complex use cases including traffic actuation, near-miss detection, outside of crosswalk events, red light running and wrong-way driving."
Chattanooga is working with Southern Lighting & Traffic Systems and the Center for Urban Informatics & Progress, part of the UTC Research Institute, to expand the city's lidar connected traffic infrastructure by the end of 2025.
“We are excited to be part of this innovative expansion that will drive meaningful traffic and safety optimizations in our city, all while ensuring privacy of residents,” said Dr. Mina Sartipi, founding director of the Center for Urban Informatics and Professor at UTC. “Ouster BlueCity already led us to install a crosswalk that resulted in a 100 percent reduction in near-miss incidents on a high-risk city block. We are just starting to capture the full benefits of this technology.”
Ouster BlueCity is already deployed at hundreds of intersections around the world with more underway as municipalities take steps to modernize their traffic infrastructure. Ouster BlueCity achieved system-level NEMA TS2 certification as a detection system for traffic actuation in 2024, making it the first certified lidar traffic solution with Buy America(n) lidar.
“We are thrilled to work with the city of Chattanooga and its partners to deploy the largest lidar-powered traffic network in the country,” said Asad Lesani, VP of Smart Infrastructure Products at Ouster. “Every accident we can help prevent and every hour of transit time saved with advanced digital lidar detection is a win. Ouster BlueCity already yields invaluable results, and we look forward to rapidly expanding its adoption.”
To learn more about this expanded deployment of advanced digital lidar detection, register to join a free ITS America webinar with the University of Tennessee Chattanooga and Ouster on Jan. 21.