$500,000 Prize Offered For Technology To Speed Up Airport Security Lanes
Clear announced recently that it will award a $500,000 "Clear Prize" to the first team to deploy faster security lane technology at an airport. Clear has promised that the winning team's technology will be purchased in bulk, once approved for use by the Transportation Security Administration at any airport where Clear operates fast pass lanes.
Clear will host a half-day symposium for invited participants on February 13 at the Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum at the San Francisco International Airport to present the criteria for entry. A "Clear Prize" Advisory Panel, consisting of chief technology officers and/or security directors of several of the leading airports and airlines that have partnered with Clear, will assist in the selection of the prize winner.
"The Clear Prize is the next phase of providing expedited passage through the security checkpoints for Clear members,” said Clear's chief technology officer Jason Slibeck. “We're looking for both all-encompassing technology to change dramatically the checkpoint process and simple, discrete improvements that apply common sense solutions for easing the security bottleneck."
"There are literally hundreds of creative teams out there with cutting edge technology products that potentially could speed throughput while enhancing security. We want to bring these solutions to the forefront faster than the process has been moving," explained Clear CEO Steven Brill.
"As is well known," Brill said, "We've invested in GE's shoe scanner and explosive trace detection technology and are hopeful that GE will succeed in getting it through the final stages of the TSA approval process. But we've now decided to prime the pump and accelerate the race by offering not only a substantial cash prize but a contract to buy the equipment for all the airports where Clear now operates and all of the other airports we will launch this year and next."
Brill also noted that because GE is an equity shareholder in Clear and because its shoe scanner is already in the final stages of TSA testing for deployment, GE will not be eligible for the Clear Prize.
"This prize is one way that we will continue to offer higher throughput to participating airports and airlines," said Larry Zmuda, Clear's chief operating officer. "We are intensely focused on making sure that our lanes maintain a substantially higher throughput and accommodate more passengers than the non-Clear lanes. We already do that with our concierges, who speed throughput 30 percent by helping people divest and retrieve items like cell phones and shoes. Enhanced technology is another resource we will deploy on a continuing basis to add to those improvements in efficiency and predictability."
For more information, visit for www.flyclear.com/innovation.