Czech artificial intelligence understands traffic. And solves it for the whole world
It sees more on the roads than the human eye – and analyzes the image it gets using artificial intelligence. But that’s not all. The project, which the Czech GoodVision came up with, understands the complex relationships in transport and calculates the future. Its smart analysis of traffic situations makes it possible to control traffic, calculate its development, evaluate traffic peaks, count cyclists and pedestrians, and plan traffic improvements and new constructions. Solutions are already being purchased by a global company, which is why the Czech project monitors traffic at intersections both in Prague and, for example, in Minnesota or parts of the Tour de France. And now he receives 66 million crowns from investors.
The Czech company GoodVision closed the transaction literally a few minutes before Christmas. “A bit symbolic. It has been a challenging period, but now we have a fresh start to the new year. We are recruiting people, we will be moving to new offices in the spring,” says Daniel Štofan, co-founder and head of GoodVision.
The new premises mean the possibility of increasing the number of employees again. They will be for up to forty people, while nineteen of them are currently working for GoodVision – doubling is expected within a year and a half. And the numbers to find are also to be multiplied. The company does not want to disclose the current ones, so at least Štofan approximates that they are in the lower units of millions of euros. But he intends to at least double them for this year.
Money is then sent to GoodVision by a trio of investors, namely Lead Ventures from Budapest, Hungary, Credo Ventures from the Czech Republic and Sofia Angels Ventures from Bulgaria. They get for it, the amount of which the parties do not disclose the share. According to Štofan, this is a minority. I add that the investment will increase three times a year, so it is now in the lower tens of euros.
“We are investing in GoodVision for the second time because the company has a strategic team and a product that promotes customers in the most developed markets of Europe, including the United States, Asia and the West,” he is joined by Vladislav Jež from Credo. GoodVision intends to use the money for product, distribution and “preparation for the future”. In addition to Štofan, another co-founder of the company, Lukáš Hrubý, believes that data in transport will be essential in it.
Why do you have a red wave while driving?
GoodVision does not provide or manage traffic as such – it provides the basis for its understanding to companies that do. And without knowing it, you might have met her too. All you have to do is drive. Its data is to ensure that they do not get stuck in a traffic jam on their way to work.
“Our business customers are, for example, the ones we scold for running red. We don’t know who, but we curse. At the same time, it is much more complicated,” describes Štofan. Such data will perhaps make it possible to calculate the impact of updating the bypass around Zličín on traffic jams in Letňany.
GoodVision supplies its services to a total of 120 different companies, often very transport-consulting, and some of them are among the largest in the world. More than 4,500 people regularly use the system in them today. The Czech platform helps B2B companies make decisions about transport in New Zealand, Denmark, Brazil, Florida, the Philippines or Singapore.
In Ethiopia, thanks to it, they analyzed 120,000 hours of traffic studies in order to build a new transport infrastructure in the largest market on the planet. GoodVision handles nationwide traffic counts from all over Malaysia on a regular basis. And in Minnesota, for example, it helps with the administration and operation of the highway system. “We are currently targeting several interesting regions, for example the USA, where there is great potential and underpressure in the industry. But who knows. We were aiming for the UK, but with the pandemic we succeeded in Asia. At the same time, South America is growing for us,” Štofan smiles.
In general, the documents from which companies planned how transport should be managed and developed (or how buildings should be planned) were, in the words of Štofan, dismal: “He calculated human traffic for the plan to build a large roundabout. Once upon a time, lines were made on paper, the same happens today. The results fluctuate and the level of information captured is very low.” A similar decision is also made in the case of traffic control at intersections and roads using traffic lights. And when current data is available, disposable sensors provide it.
“It’s usually a wire in the asphalt that beeps (sends a signal) whenever a metal axle passes over it,” Štofan simplifies. “Two short beeps – passenger car. Two to six beeps – big truck. Or two smaller trucks? Or three passenger cars? I’m not even talking about the fact that such a sensor does not know where the vehicle went, how fast and how many are still waiting in line behind it. It’s kind of like a person driving with a scarf over their eyes and someone drawing pictures on their back with their finger.” describing.
According to him, transport is a very complex matter that requires knowledge of even the most subtle nuances in changes in traffic flows. “Every slight change in the parameters or a traffic event can mean, for example, a traffic jam that is just being born, which can then result in congestion in the entire district and on the main road through the city,” zooms in.
He says transportation companies have been trying to combat the issue for decades. But different intelligent systems are sometimes more, sometimes less successful. This is a great opportunity in the eyes of the co-founder of the young company.
On the brink of revolution
We are talking about GoodVision for the first time they wrote in 2019, when Štofan and Hrubý reported an investment of 26 million crowns also from Credo Ventures, who at the same time poured money into them. In the same year, the company showed that it can get paying customers. At that time, her work included the collection and modeling of traffic data and analysis of traffic behavior, and traffic control at intersections gradually began to expand.
The company started in the Czech Republic, where it still maintains a research and development center. It later established a parent company in England, established distribution in the United States, Denmark, Chile, New Zealand, the Philippines, Holland and South Africa. Currently – also thanks to the new money – they are building a branch in Hungary.
At the end of 2021, the company launched real-time monitoring of the situation on and around the roads, marking the third generation of its product. And the area that is currently growing the most in terms of sales. It gets information from traffic cameras, sometimes I also use drones. And its artificial intelligence evaluates them. In addition to the already mentioned, the system allows, for example, to find cases of violations of traffic regulations, with an accuracy of over 95 percent. So the municipality is also interested in him.
In the meantime, GoodVision has started, for example, in many countries less common means, such as bicycles or rickshaws. It is an increasingly common form of transport, i.e. in Europe at least the first-named means. In addition, the co-founders explain that they need to look at the road situation in many contexts and extract information that may not be obvious at first glance.
“There’s a story in that data. It is possible to find out anything you can think of about the traffic flow from them. Even more than we currently have available in the platform,” Štofan believes. They are currently boasting that the company has grown by 200 percent in the last three years. But I think the possibilities are much bigger. “In the field of transport, we are on the verge of a technological revolution. It’s the next big thing in transportation.” I think.
A company boss talking about vehicles communicating with other vehicles and larger systems, a future of autonomous cars that will need instant data from the roads. According to him, we are fundamentally approaching the first mentioned concept, i.e. when cars “talk” to each other about the traffic situation and other important information.
“It’s not a question of if, but when and how. Cars need to get data about the situation, traffic density and travel time. Or about moving on the road around the next bend,” zooms in.