Spoke and AWS Collaborate to Save Lives of Bicyclists, Motorcyclists, Scooter Riders and Other Mobility Users
Spoke, a mobility platform for safety and rich rider experiences, announced a strategic relationship today with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to deliver first-of-its-kind connectivity to bicyclists, motorcyclists, scooter riders and other mobility users on the roadway, ensuring they are “seen” by cars and can “see” vehicles and drivers around them.
Spoke and AWS collaborate to save lives by ensuring vulnerable road users are “seen” by vehicles around them.
Spoke uses Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) direct communication, a technology for safety and mobility applications that provides drivers with instant, highly accurate alerts 10 times a second from their vehicles, so that they can take action and avoid crashes. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA), in 2019, there were approximately 47,000 bicyclists and 84,000 motorcyclists injured with nearly 6,000 riders killed in motor vehicle crashes on public roadways in the United States. C-V2X could reduce the number and severity of unimpaired crashes by up to 80%. For instance, drivers could be alerted that a bicyclist is in their blind spot when they are making a right turn or cyclists could be warned that a vehicle is passing another vehicle and coming into their lane.
“When building C-V2X solutions, the industry often leaves most vulnerable road users (VRU) out of the equation,” said Jarrett Wendt, Spoke CEO. “The Spoke hardware and software suite is a first-of-its-kind connected system that offers secure, direct communication for contextual awareness and alerts between drivers and riders. When we talk about saving lives, there could be no other partner than AWS to provide the leading edge services, speed and reliability that will enable us to deliver what we refer to as ‘vulnerable road-user-to-everything’, or VRU2X™.”
AWS services deliver the speed, scalability and security Spoke needs to deliver deeper and more tailored safety and ride guidance to its users, including real-time data ingestion and streaming analytics for VRU2X safety and connectivity data, as well as machine learning and AI services.
“By building on AWS, Spoke Safety has the performance, scalability and breadth of services they need to create a mobility platform that keeps everyone on our roadways safer,” said Bill Foy, Director of Worldwide Automotive Specialist Solutions, AWS. “We look forward to helping them bring this first-of-its-kind offering to market and grow their business in the years ahead across devices and use cases.”
AWS will also power a global data repository connecting bicycle and other light mobility original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with their consumers. The Spoke software portfolio allows OEMs and consumers to custom tailor the combination of user features. Applications such as VRU2X™ traffic notifications, safer route navigation, security services, and ride, health and fitness experiences can be accessed over a smartphone or the Spoke display via the Spoke Safety App (grouped in Safety Features + Ride Enriching Features). The display, along with Spoke’s game-changing, VRU-sized connected hardware, cameras and lights, complete a transportation ecosystem that literally puts bicyclists, motorcyclists and other light mobility users on the map.
Spoke is working with a number of stakeholders, including Qualcomm Technologies and vehicle, bicycle, scooter and motorcycle OEMs, for maximum scale, adoption and safety impact. The Spoke portfolio will be launching with OEM bicycle, motorcycle and scooter partners in 2022.
“As top industry innovators and implementers of award-winning, transformative connected software, infotainment systems and mobility hardware, we knew it was time to simply and elegantly include our most vulnerable road users into the intelligent transportation ecosystem and build our connection to each other. The Spoke and AWS collaboration makes all of this possible. AWS enables us to move quickly and scale, which are fundamental to unlocking the direct digital communication that connects all users anonymously to each other, to smart infrastructure, and to the OEMs,” noted Wendt.
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About Spoke
Spoke is elevating road safety to an entirely new level. We are synergizing state-of-the-art technologies with market-leading partners to deliver transformative, first-of-its-kind C-V2X and modem-based solutions that provide a new peace of mind on our daily rides, commutes and adventures. Spoke is dedicated to protecting the most vulnerable on our roadways by connecting them to the traffic participants and mobility ecosystem around them.
