Las Vegas Tests Cameras, Sensors To Measure Collision Patterns on One-Way Streets

The city partnered with Dell, NTT and the Nevada state government for a year-long pilot program to help reduce vehicle accidents.

• By Haley Samsel
• Aug 19, 2019

In an effort to reduce collisions and improve driver and pedestrian safety, Las Vegas officials are testing new technology to track traffic patterns on one-way streets without identifying drivers or pedestrians, StateScoop reported.

In late 2018, the city partnered with the Nevada state government, Dell and Japanses telecommunications company NTT to test new infrared cameras and lidar-based sensors to help officials reduce collisions and other vehicle accidents.

The year-long pilot project, focused on downtown Vegas’ one-way streets, uses inter-connected audio and video sensors to manage all traffic in the area, Michael Sherwood, the city’s director of innovation and technology, told StateScoop.

“What we’ve found out is while we didn’t have a lot of accidents on a [one-way] street, we did have a lot of people going the wrong way,” he said.

Sherwood added that NTT’s optical sensors can detect near misses between cars and measures distance with lidar, a laser-based surveying tool. The city has placed the sensors, which can also collect audio information to detect where cars are on the road, at intersections and light poles across downtown.

Dell software computes the audio-visual data on the edge, or within the sensor itself.

“Instead of sending all the data back to a core, trying to analyze it and send something back, even though that might take milliseconds, it really is not helpful if you’re trying to change a light from green to red based on a condition,” Sherwood said.

At the end of the pilot period, the city will own all of the data collected by the companies. Protecting residents’ privacy was also a key element of the project, since the city does not collect information on cars or drivers: “We just need to know that a vehicle went the wrong way,” he said.