Israel-based Mobileye, which provides driver-assistance systems for 90 per cent of the world’s automakers, will equip buses with computer vision-powered cameras and software which will not only alerts drivers seconds before an anticipated accident but also identifies the most dangerous roads.

Early last month, US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx had announced the Smart City Challenge inviting mid-size cities (200,000 to 850,000 in population) to submit their vision for the future of transportation and to compete for $50 million in funding to be applied towards data-driven innovation—$40 million coming from the USDOT and another $10 million from Paul Allen’s company Vulcan specifically for climate-related solutions.

The Israeli company is targeting this opportunity by providing Mobileye Shield+ System which can indentify hot spots by aggregating a bus fleet’s accident-prevention alerts.

The company, which powers driver assistance systems in about 10 million cars worldwide, installs four computer-vision cameras in larger vehicles with larger blind spots. The cameras identify pedestrians. When someone gets close to a bus, the driver sees an orange alert on the dash. If the software determines a likely collision, the display flashes red and an alert sounds.

Retrofitting an entire city fleet—at $6,500 per vehicle—won’t be cheap for Mobileye. Two hundred buses alone will cost around $1.3 million.

Mobileye Vice President Elad Serfaty says participating in the US Smart City project offers an opportunity to showcase the technology, which is currently used in thousands of buses in Israel and hundreds of construction trucks in London.