Spying a bargain to cash in on life in the fast lane
Inflated petrol prices and mercy visits to the vet with chocolate-poisoned canines aside, one downside of Easter is a blip in the road toll despite the usual blitzes on drink driving and speeding.
Illegal mobile usage can be equally hazardous but harder to detect – until now. Road safety tech group Acusensus (ASX:ACE) is coming to the rescue of the overworked highway patrol with its world-leading cameras that can detect mobile miscreants, including in wet or dark conditions.
The only tech IPO so far this year, Acusensus listed on January 11 after raising $40m and is gathering momentum – below the speed limit of course – here and abroad.
Acusensus has $137m in multi-year contracts for mobile phone and speed compliance in NSW and Queensland and for mobiles in the ACT.
The company also has established operations in the US and the UK, with pilot projects across five continents in a market estimated to be worth $1.76bn a year. Acusensus is the brainchild of its CEO Alexander Jannink, who was motivated to devise the tech after a cyclist friend was killed by a mobile-distracted driver.
He says most road deaths are caused by “illegal or really stupid behaviour” – such as that Instagram post that can’t wait five minutes. “We are addressing the underlying causes of two out of three road deaths,” Jannink says.
The art of mobile use detection lies in the height and configuration of the cameras, which are higher than a speed camera and able to see though heavily tinted windscreens.
There’s an artificial intelligence (AI) angle, in terms of handling the captured images and improving the ability of the cameras to detect offenders.
The trouble is, the pictures are automatically deleted because the driver has done no wrong. When they have offended, the “prosecutable evidence” is retained only for long enough to send the pics to the authorities. “But every page that goes through the system has a data fingerprint and that can be enough to nudge the models in the right direction,” Jannink says.
With the help of a federal grant, Acusensus and Griffith University are working on AIbased methods to detect alcohol or drug impaired drivers by their behaviour.
Under this “heads up, real time” approach to detection, a camera detects an erratic vehicle. The image is sent to a police unit stationed up the road – and that driver is prioritised for testing rather than the abstemious vicar in a Morris Minor behind it.
The company expects to generate $40m for the year to June 2023 and to beat its prospectus forecast of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $3.1m.
Acusensus could be made redundant by driverless vehicles, but that looks decades away. This story does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.