Roads are the largest infrastructure on earth, covering 30 million kilometers (8 million miles) around the world. Only 4% roads around the world are equipped with sensors to convey key data such as traffic patterns, hazardous conditions, driver behavior and accidents.
About $3 million per mile must be cost today to make roads "smart.". Gabriel Jacobson, chief executive of Valerann, an Israeli and British company, said their cloud road digitization system aims to reduce current costs by 90%. The basis of Israeli technology is to replace the existing reflective solar road stud markers. Smart solar road stud markers are embedded every 10 to 15 m of road in the UK to highlight the lane. Using wireless smart solar road stud markers sensors and antennas, the original data is collected and transmitted to the pole control unit to send the data to the cloud for analysis.
At the end of the real-time process, the road operator receives a complete map that shows the real-time situation. And the smart solar road stud markers can send an alarm if necessary. The LED lighting of the smart solar road stud markers can change color or flash through remote control, such as helping emergency assistant workers to the scene of an accident or warning other drivers about vehicles parked on the road. Jacobson said solar road stud markers change every few years, so they can be gradually replaced by Valerann smart solar road stud markers. Valerann road stud markers need to be replaced every 7 to 10 years, which may be consistent with the scheduled road resurfacing.
