Saphe launches next generation in-car alert at ITS World Congress

Next-generation in-car safety product Saphe, launched at the ITS World Congress, has captured the interest of the European Commission and United Nations (UN). Violeta Bulc, European commissioner for transport, has asked for a meeting in Brussels with Saphe founder Freddy Sørensen. Saphe fits in the palm of a hand and is installed inside a car’s windscreen. The cloud-based product connects via Bluetooth to a smartphone app and, for a monthly fee, warns drivers against hazards such as ambulances approaching
September 20, 2018 Read time: 2 mins

Next-generation in-car safety product 8847 Saphe, launched at the 6456 ITS World Congress, has captured the interest of the 1690 European Commission and United Nations (UN). Violeta Bulc, European commissioner for transport, has asked for a meeting in Brussels with Saphe founder Freddy Sørensen. Saphe fits in the palm of a hand and is installed inside a car’s windscreen. The cloud-based product connects via Bluetooth to a smartphone app and, for a monthly fee, warns drivers against hazards such as ambulances approaching or when trains are coming to level crossings. Visiting the Saphe stand with Jean Todt, UN special envoy for road safety, Bulc commented: “This product is good. It can be used all over the world. Accidents involving emergency vehicles are a major problem, the same applies to trains. So we are going to have a meeting on how we can develop this together.”

Founded in 2015, Saphe was originally designed to warn motorists about speed cameras and accidents – and 400,000 of the first version have been sold in Denmark. The main difference with the second-generation product – which will go on sale in November – is the addition of a display “so you can tell more about what’s happening”. Saphe also alerts drivers about upcoming roadworks and wrong-way drivers, and warns them when they are close to schools at drop-off and pick-up times – as well pointing out accidents and speed cameras.

“Our goal of coming to Congress is to get cooperation and development with other countries. So, getting a meeting with the commissioner is fantastic,” says Sørensen.

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Speed reduction measures - carrot or stick?
    January 23, 2012
    In Sweden, marketing company DDB Stockholm employed a mock speed camera as part of a promotional campaign for automotive manufacturer Volkswagen. The result was worldwide online interest and promotion of the debate over excessive speed to the national level. A developing trend in traffic management policy is to look at how to induce road users to modify their behaviour by incentivising change rather than forcing it through the application of penalties. There have been several studies conducted into this; an
    Read More
  • Big data and GPS combine to cut emergency response times
    April 2, 2014
    David Crawford looks at technologies for better emergency medical service delivery. Emergency medical services (EMS) play key roles in transporting, or bringing treatment to, patients who become ill through medical emergencies or are injured in road traffic accidents (RTAs). But awareness has been rising steadily, in the US and elsewhere, of the extent to which EMS can generate their own emergencies. The most common cause is vehicles causing or becoming involved in RTAs, as a result of driving fast under pr
    Read More
  • Developing ‘next generation’ traffic control centre technology
    July 4, 2012
    The Rijkswaterstaat and Highways Agency have joined forces to investigate what the market can do to realise an idealistic vision for traffic control centre technology. Jon Masters reports One particular seminar session of the Intertraffic show in Amsterdam in March was notably over subscribed. So heavy was the press to attend that your author, making his way over late from another appointment, could not get in and found himself craning over other heads locked outside to overhear what was being said. The
    Read More
  • Keeping people on track is RATP’s raison d’etre
    June 14, 2018
    In Paris, RATP Group’s autonomous Metro Line 1 is carrying 750,000 people a day across the city. Ben Spencer is invited into the control room to take a look at how the system works Paris is visited by millions of tourists each year, keen to see for themselves stunning attractions such as the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Notre-Dame, the Louvre, the Seine and all the rest. But while the best-known sites of the City of Light tend to be on the surface, there is a lot going on below those iconic grand boule
    Read More

Highlighted Content