In 2018, 1.5 million people were killed and more than 50 million were injured in road accidents. Of these, about 50% were pedestrians and cyclists. To help cut down on this dangerous trend, one company is connecting smartphones with a car’s AI.

Meet Israeli-based Viziblezone. They’ve recently introduced ‘Pedestrian Detector’ software that connects a pedestrian’s smartphone to the collision detector in an approaching vehicle. The tech can help avoid an accident even if the person is out of the driver’s field of view.

In recent testing, Viziblezone’s software was able to detect pedestrians at up to 500 feet even if they were obstructed by other cars or objects. The detector can work day and night, in all types of weather.

Viziblezone demo video

Viziblezone Pedestrian AI Sends Signal to Car’s Collision Detector

The tech is software-based so there is no need for any modifications to the car’s infrastructure. When a pedestrian gets close to a moving vehicle, the smartphone sends a signal to the vehicle’s collision detector. AI will process the speed and location of both the vehicle and pedestrian along with the surrounding environment to determine the danger level. It will then send that information to the car’s ECU (Electronic Control Unit). If the danger level is high, the car will automatically adjust or stop.

“Viziblezone offers a cost-effective, software-based ‘pedestrian detector’ that effectively turns in-vehicle and mobile phone RF facilities into a kind of an “Iron Dome” for people on the streets and sidewalks. By utilizing the wide distribution of mobile devices among pedestrians, it transforms them into “smart beacons” that cars can see and then avoid,” said Gabi Ofir, CEO and founder of Viziblezone in a press release.

Viziblezone stops for a pedestrian



Viziblezone Targeting Driverless Cars

The company aims to provide the pedestrian detector component free of charge for mobile manufacturers, with a one-time license fee for every unit installed in the cars. Since the technology does not rely on vision detection, it is able to be used now in any vehicles that have collision detection technology. Ultimately, Viziblezone’s main target is the self-driving car market as the company feels it’s where the tech can be most useful once autonomous vehicles become the norm.

Check out our articles on 5g self-driving buses and Walmart using VR to evaluate employees.