London-based AI scale-up Vivacity Labs has today been honoured with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise. The Vivacity Labs team was awarded the Innovation Award for its technology that supports government, regional bodies and local councils to re-think and optimise the way traffic and transport infrastructure is built and used.
The Queen’s Award for Enterprise, now in its 55th year, is widely recognised as the highest official UK award for British businesses. The accolade is given to businesses and organisations who excel at innovation, international trade, sustainable development or promoting opportunity. Vivacity Labs was recognised with this year’s Innovation Award for its Artificial Intelligence technology which anonymously captures and classifies live transport usage, helping make cities smarter, safer and more sustainable.
Established in 2016, Vivacity Labs’ sensors use proprietary machine learning algorithms to enable accurate detection, classification and analysis of different transport modes, traffic flow and travel patterns on how road users behave. This anonymous data helps to improve urban infrastructure by providing detailed insight into how roads are used, and is enabling the development of the next generation of future city-wide traffic control systems.
Vivacity Labs has been using this anonymous data to help councils implement and facilitate ‘active travel’ schemes (such as walking and cycling). Its AI-based ‘Smart Junctions’ traffic signal system also reduces queuing, congestion and emissions and allows cities to prioritise sustainable modes of travel, including cycling and public transport.
Mark Nicholson, CEO and Co-Founder at Vivacity Labs commented: “It is an honour to receive the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise and we are extremely proud to be recognised for our work in making cities smarter, safer and more sustainable. As we emerge from the pandemic, cities need data to evolve and adapt their transport networks to the new normal. We are excited to support transport authorities in this transition with privacy-centric datasets and tools.”
Vivacity Labs’ sensors have been deployed in over 40 towns and cities across the UK, including Manchester, Cambridge and Sunderland, and provide detailed and anonymous data 24/7.