Melbourne-based startup SenSen AI is set to take its proprietary mobile enforcement systems and software to Canada, after winning a contract worth up to $17.7 million with the City of Montreal’s Agence de mobilité durable de Montréal.
The three-year contract, which has an option to extend it for an additional two years, will see SenSen AI roll out one of the largest mobile enforcement systems in the world.
SenSen AI’s Live Awareness platform helps harmonise various elements of a city’s environment. For instance, using the information to allow for sustainable mobility by managing curbside and off-street parking spaces.
Founded in 2007 by CEO Dr Subhash Challa, SenSen AI spun out from the University of Technology Sydney where Dr Challa was a professor of computer systems.
Speaking to SmartCompany, Challa explained how the Live Awareness AI platform works in real-time.
“Cities and other environments are very complex and have many different moving parts. This is especially true on the street and curb where vehicles, pedestrians and shop fronts all come together,” he says.
“Because of this complexity, it has been a challenge for a long time to get all the information of what is going on at the street level into one place —how people and vehicles move, for example— and then use this information to make a clear picture that cities can understand and use to help everything and everyone work better together.”
“Live Awareness in some ways is like a conductor that makes many different musicians play together as one —it harmonises the street and curbs so the city can work better —and truly become smart.
“For example, Live Awareness can help traffic flow or keep curbs clear so the flower shop owner can sell more flowers. It can also keep people safe and help cities use space for everyone’s good.”
According to Dr Challa, the platform provides highly accurate analysis of data from multiple sources including cameras, sensors, and GIS in real-time.
Live Awareness is the highest form of intelligence for real-time decision-making and helps automate complex, real-world processes and deliver insights that were once considered impossible to attain simultaneously.
Commenting on the Montreal contract, Dr Challa says he was “delighted” to have SenSen AI’s “global leadership in this space” recognised in this way.
The startup’s technology can help solve complex problems like “urban canyoning” – the unreliability of GPS in location tracking because of the density of high-rise buildings and narrow streets – that others can not.
“For this reason, SenSen is chosen by cities that need the adaptability and power of its technology that is currently unable to be addressed by others,” Challa says.
The ASX-listed company grew its revenue by 12.5% over the past year as it strives for profitability. It has also added 10 cities in North America as customers, which join a growing list of major fuel retail brands on its current roster. These include AMPOL, Chevron, Liberty and BP among others.
“Live Awareness is an enabler of better decisions for smart cities and others trying to improve outcomes for all participants in a particular environment,” Challa explains.
“You could say that Live Awareness is an awareness raiser generally, enabling us not only to see conditions that could affect accessibility, sustainability and equity, but actually do something about it and then continually measure and improve for better outcomes.”
As for the future, Challa says the company is “focused on continual expansion and capitalising on Live Awareness’ compelling market fit”.
The CEO sees various other applications for its technology.
“Beyond Smart Cities, for example, we’ve had success in applying Live Awareness to make seaports safer for workers and more efficient for commerce,” he says.
Challa also sees the technology’s benefit for small businesses like petrol stations and convenience stores. According to industry bodies, Australia lost over $82 million in 2022 to fuel theft.
“The small petrol shop owners that carry the largest burden of such thefts have recouped $2.5 million from fuel thieves in 2023 alone,” Challa shares.
“Petrol retailers can prevent theft and recover ‘stolen’ revenues from unavoidable fuel theft using Live Awareness AI.”
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Prior to joining SmartCompany, Mrinaal was the content head at Lawctopus. She has a dual degree in business and law, with a Masters in constitutional law. You can follow her on Twitter at @mrinaaldatt.
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