City of Rüsselsheim, Germany Selects Velodyne Smart Infrastructure Solutions

The City of Rüsselsheim, Germany, Selects Velodyne Smart Infrastructure Solutions for Urban Traffic Management

San Jose, California, March 10, 2022, Velodyne Lidar announced that its smart infrastructure solution has been selected by the German city of Rüsselsheim. By using Velodyne's full-stack lidar-based solution, a city-wide monitoring system will be built for the city's truck traffic management, digitally monitoring and reporting on trucks that are prohibited from entering city streets to alleviate road congestion, air and noise pollution. Rüsselsheim is a city on the Main River in southern Hesse, Germany, and is famous for producing Opel cars.

As part of its plan to digitize the city’s transportation system, the City of Rüsselsheim deployed Velodyne’s Smart Infrastructure Solutions at 16 lidar-based monitoring stations located on busy roads in and out of the city.

The municipal traffic system equipped with Velodyne sensors was developed and coordinated by a Freedom of Information officer of the Hesse state government, who oversees compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which protects data privacy. The lidar sensor-based application captures non-personalized features of road vehicles and their passengers to detect and monitor trucks that are prohibited from driving in the city. “This data privacy-compliant traffic monitoring system plays a pioneering role in Germany,” said the Russelsheim authorities.

For vehicle classification and prohibited vehicle identification, the smart infrastructure solution uses Velodyne Ultra Puck lidar sensors, which do not recognize driver facial features and license plate numbers, thereby protecting personal and vehicle privacy data. The application's digital monitoring function reduces the burden of traffic enforcement on the police and avoids wasting police resources.

Russelsheim is located in the heart of the Rhine main city, Germany's second largest city, and is an important urban transportation hub. However, hundreds of trucks travel on the road every day to other cities, causing traffic congestion and deteriorating urban air quality. To solve this problem, Russelsheim prohibits trucks with a load weight of more than 7.5 tons from driving on city streets unless they have a departure or destination within the city.

“Rüsselsheim is taking an innovative approach to protecting city residents from traffic congestion, noise and exhaust pollution caused by long-haul trucks,” said Laura Wrisley, Vice President of Global Sales, Velodyne Lidar. “Velodyne believes that smart city applications, led by smart infrastructure solutions, are revolutionizing municipal transportation systems and urban sustainability initiatives.” 

Velodyne Smart Infrastructure Solutions

Velodyne Smart Infrastructure Solution combines Velodyne's award-winning lidar sensors with Bluecity's powerful artificial intelligence (AI) software. The solution can create real-time 3D maps of roads and intersections, detect and provide precise information about road users, including vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists. It can protect vulnerable road users in any lighting or weather conditions 365 days a year while protecting people's privacy. In this project, COM-IoT Technologies will also provide an image comparison module for the smart infrastructure solution.

The city of Rüsselsheim also plans to use the solution’s traffic monitoring and analysis capabilities in the future. These capabilities can predict, diagnose and respond to road safety challenges, helping municipalities and other customers make informed decisions to take corrective measures.

Velodyne Smart Infrastructure Solutions