AI for road safety: Acusensus is on a global mission to save lives on roads

Acusensus is an ASX-listed road safety tech company with global ambitions. But for founder Alexander Jannink and his team, growth is about more than winning contracts.

This is a company with impact at its heart, and a mission to prevent traffic accidents, trauma and fatalities all over the world.

In late 2024, Acusensus took a significant step towards this goal, securing a nationwide speed enforcement contract with the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) — a contract with an estimated value of up to NZ$92 million.

Mobile safety camera operations

The New Zealand partnership focuses on speed enforcement, with Acusensus taking over the contract from the NZ Police. It is the first time there will be unmanned mobile safety trailers on the roads, alongside the speed enforcement vehicles common in New Zealand.

The 5-year contract begins with a 6-month establishment contract worth NZ$5 million, and will ultimately be one of the company’s biggest deals to date, Jannink says. 

But perhaps more significantly, it’s also the first nationwide rollout of this kind of technology, and one of New Zealand’s biggest ever investments in road safety tech.

‘A lot of hard work went into securing a partnership with New Zealand,’ says Jannick. ‘I am incredibly proud of the whole team in demonstrating consistently over many years to many clients the quality of our solutions and services, and the honesty and transparency we bring to every partnership.’

Tech to tackle the Fatal Five

Acusensus’s flagship Heads-Up product uses AI-enabled cameras to identify drivers using mobile phones or failing to wear seatbelts. It also detects speeding, and cars driving in closed lanes.

With high accuracy, the software identifies and photographs potential illegal behaviour and sends the relevant images to a team of humans for review, while discarding the rest.

For Jannink, this is a deeply personal mission. In 2013, his friend and co-worker James Rapley was killed by a driver who was impaired and allegedly texting at the time.

There was no solution, he realised, for preventing distraction by phone while driving.

‘This was a significant, unaddressed cause of road trauma, which affects so many people,’ he says.

Road traffic accidents cause 50 million injuries and 1.3 million deaths globally each year. They are the leading cause of death for people aged between 5 and 29 years old.

The vast majority of those fatalities involve one or more of the so-called ‘fatal five’:

• speeding
• distracted driving
• driving without a seatbelt
• driving while on alcohol or drugs
• driving while fatigued.

‘These are preventable human behaviours,’ Jannink notes. ‘They’re all decisions made by a person behind the wheel.’

Currently, Acusensus addresses 3 of the fatal 5 in a single system. The goal is to address them all.

Acusensus uses AI-enabled technology to identify and photograph potential illegal behaviour by drivers.

Prevention, not prosecution, underpins technology

Acusensus is running trials in the UK around detecting drug and alcohol impairment, and also working on a solution to better protect road workers.

‘We’re constantly looking to the next big unaddressed safety challenge,’ Jannink says.

‘The goal to improve road safety is not just our founding story, it’s the core of the business. It’s the driving force.’

It should go without saying that ‘success’ for Jannink is in prevention, rather than prosecution.

So, implementation always begins with a road safety campaign before the camera rollout.

‘It’s a full safe systems approach,’ he says.

‘There is usually a big media and education campaign by our government partners focused on the dangers of distracted driving. Then there’s a warning period explaining that enforcement is coming into effect.

‘The whole point is to detect people doing the wrong thing and to help them understand that this behaviour is dangerous — that it’s being monitored — so they choose to make better decisions.’

Austrade as an early (and ongoing) champion

Since 2018, Acusensus has delivered programs across 11 countries including Australia, the US, the UK, India and a handful of European nations. Throughout, Austrade has provided significant support, Jannink says.

‘In 2018, we received our seed investment from a connection made through Austrade. Without that initial introduction, Acusensus might not exist.’

Since then, Austrade has provided more introductions to key contacts, offered support, advice and translation services overseas, and hosted the team on missions to scope out potential new markets.

‘Because the majority of our clients are governments or government-related, it helps to have the Australian Government supporting our mission,’ Jannink says.

‘Having people advocate for businesses like ours and facilitating conversations in various markets is incredibly valuable.’

Saving lives globally

Road safety is a global challenge. There’s no simple, replicable rollout strategy that Acusensus to apply to all nations. Still, Jannink and his team are undeterred.

‘Road safety is a global problem, and dangerous driving is a leading cause of death all over the world,’ he says. 

‘We can’t be everywhere from day one, but we’re continuing to expand, and we’re hoping to save more lives.’