Commsignia has announced the OBU Lite vehicle-to-everything (V2X) device for electric bicycles and micromobility to improve the visibility and safety of vulnerable road users in traffic.
With the OBU Lite, Commsignia is now offering solutions for the complete V2X-based digital transport ecosystem.
Road deaths among cyclists are rising at an alarming rate, with fatalities increased by 11% in 2022 according to NHTSA statistics. V2X-enabled cars, bicycles and other road users are aware of each other without being in each other’s line of sight, and this mutual awareness means people can make better decisions and avoid injuries from risky or unexpected situations.
The erroneous judgment of drivers represents 40 percent, while errors in perception and detection alone accounted for 23 percent of road crashes – according to an IIHS study
The OBU Lite comes in a lightweight form factor optimized for bicycles, primarily aimed at manufacturing partners. The OBU Lite can be integrated or connected to bicycle and micromobility platforms. It broadcasts messages about the cyclist’s position and direction to other road users, as well as receives messages from other vehicles, so that the rider can be alerted to potential hazards by visual, audio or haptic notification.
The OBU Lite joins the global V2X ecosystem of cars, buses, trucks and other vehicles and a growing digital roadside Infrastructure to help prevent collisions with real-time alerts. Commsignia, building on its automotive and smart city knowledge and its experience working with eBike component manufacturers and OEMs, equipped the OBU Lite with its automotive grade, state-of-the art V2X Software Stack with Security which is already used by car manufacturers.
Commsignia provides several road safety applications specifically built for providing secure and robust connection between bicycles and motorized vehicles to prevent the most common crashes.
Commsignia’ s own V2X applications include:
- Intersection Movement Assist
- Left-turn Assist
- Right-turn Assist
- Backward Collision Warning
- Slow Moving Vehicle Ahead
- Lane Change Assist
- Reversed Blindspot Warning
A recent Commsignia poll, reflective of US demographics, found that over 50% of people would like to have V2X technology in their vehicle. Over 78% of respondents expressed worry about bicyclists and e-scooter riders unexpectedly riding into traffic as they are driving.
Commsignia is working with partners in the bicycle industry to integrate the technology and expects mass market roll-out in the coming years.
“With the addition of the OBU Lite to our portfolio, our offering is now completely covering the whole ecosystem,” says Szabi Patay, CEO, Commsignia. “Bicycles are becoming an increasingly important part of transport, but as the popularity of micromobility solutions grows, the number of collisions involving injury or death is also on the rise. We are very happy to see that bicycle OEMs and component manufacturers are interested in our V2X-based solutions, because together we can solve traffic problems once and for all.”
