On March 20, 2021, MicroTraffic was announced as the winner of the Smart Cities, Transportation, and Logistics category of the 2021 SXSW Pitch® contest.
MicroTraffic uses AI-powered computer vision to review and assess intersection camera footage for near-miss collisions. City traffic engineers use the insights to plan improvements to dangerous intersections to prevent fatalities.
In his pitch, Craig Milligan, Founder & CEO at MicroTraffic drew parallels between planning road safety improvements and the problem of vaccine rationing. According to Craig Milligan, there are solutions that tackle intersection safety, but the expensive ones have to be rationed across a vast number of intersections. Cities want to use data to guide the rationing process as much as possible, but they can feel stuck in a reactive approach relying on historical crash data.
The SXSW Pitch is the marquee event of South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conference and Festivals, and was held between March 16-20, 2021. The event showcases innovative new technology to a panel of industry experts, high-profile media professionals, venture capital investors, and angel investors. This year the thirteenth annual showcase featured 40 interactive technology companies from 8 different categories. For more information about SXSW Pitch and to view the complete list of winners, visit: https://www.sxsw.com/pitch.
Winnipeg-based MicroTraffic participated in the inaugural cohort of the Safe x Connected Cities program in partnership with Aviva Canada.
Through the Safe x Connected Cities program, MicroTraffic has successfully launched a grant program with support from Aviva Canada. This allowed the startup to bring its cutting-edge technology to five cities across Canada and create positive momentum for the company while proactively making roads safer from coast to coast. Highline Beta and Aviva Canada are excited about MicroTraffic's continued success. In the last year, MicroTraffic has added 25 cities to its paid pilot program, doubled its computer vision team size, and tripled the size of its road safety team.