The new mobility landscape has made pavement space a hot topic in cities. Curbs are no longer just for buses, taxis, deliveries and parking. Now those traditional use cases have to contend with bike lanes, ride hail, same day deliveries, dockless vehicles and more. As a result, cities and investors are beginning to prioritize software that helps manage curbs.
Enter Automotive, a four-year-old startup that just closed a $9 million seed round to improve its automated sidewalk management solution. The company says its technology can reduce congestion and emissions by up to 10%; reduce double parking hazards by 64%; increase parking turnover by 26%; and increase parking revenue for cities by more than 500%.
Automotus is partnering with cities such as Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Omaha and Bethlehem to automate vehicle unloading and parking payments, enforce curb violations and manage preferred charging zones and discount rates for commercial electric cars, the startup said.
“We are also integrating with other mobility service providers to help cities gain a more comprehensive view of how public right-of-way is used and in what ways for planning, policy and pricing efforts,” Jordan Justus, CEO of Automotus, told businessroundups.org.
In March 2021, Automotus raised $1.2 million in seed funding, so the company has managed to raise another $7.8 million in the intervening year and a half. The most recent funds were led by City Rock Ventures, Quake Capital, Bridge Investments, Unbridled Ventures, Keiki Capital, NY Angels, Irish Angles, SUM Ventures and LA’s Cleantech Incubator Impact Fund.
“The bulk of the funding will be used to conduct and support deployments in at least 15 new cities coming online in 2023,” said Justus. “We have a big year of launches ahead of us and are focused on delivering the best possible solutions for our customers and scaling up from previous pilots.”
While Automotus largely offers a Software-as-a-Service product, installing the right hardware is an important element of data collection. In its partner cities, the startup is deploying mobile cameras equipped with Automotus’ proprietary computer vision technology. The cameras are mounted on traffic and street lighting in areas where there is a lot of loading and unloading or in emission-free delivery zones.
With Automotus technology, there is no need to download mobile apps or use meters. The cameras take images of license plates and automatically collect data, issue bills for parking or issue tickets if a vehicle does not comply with city regulations. The technology blurs all faces and de-identifies data to ensure the privacy of street users.
