Sony’s smart city platform is designed as a completely open system, collaborating with numerous edge AI and network technology partners (including AglaiaSense, Gamax, Green Ideas Technology, Irida Labs, Itron, Modii, Nota AI, Synapse ITS, and umojo) to build end-to-end solutions that enable flexible and scalable deployment of smart infrastructure. At its booth at ITS World Congress, Sony is presenting real-time data dashboards, live technical briefings, and demonstrations that show how edge AI sensing is redefining public space management and smart transportation decision-making.
In Lakewood, Colorado, Sony’s edge AI sensing technology is deployed at high-risk intersections and corridors to help reduce crashes and near-miss incidents. The system delivers real-time data on vehicle movements and pedestrian crossings, improving the safety of Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) and supporting the city’s policy goal of achieving “Vision Zero.”
The San José Department of Transportation in California is using a Sony pilot program to explore replacing traditional short-term surveys with long-term, high-accuracy traffic monitoring. In the past, traffic studies often missed seasonal and long-term patterns due to limited sampling windows. Sony’s system continuously collects vehicle counts, speeds, travel directions, as well as pedestrian and bicycle activity. Initial evaluations show over 95% accuracy in tracking directional traffic flows, providing a more comprehensive view of roadway usage and enabling more precise planning for transportation policy, safety improvements, and infrastructure investment. Furthermore, the same architecture can be extended to other smart city applications, including curbside parking management, illegal dumping detection, safer crosswalk monitoring, and asset protection against cable theft or vandalism.
Yu Kitamura, Senior Business Development Manager at Sony Semiconductor Solutions America, stated that the company believes the future of mobility begins with seeing the world more clearly. By combining high-performance AI-powered intelligent vision sensors with data applications, Sony is helping cities respond quickly to evolving transportation patterns and infrastructure needs. These vision sensors perform AI processing directly at the edge, providing real-time detection of vehicle travel direction and pedestrian crossings, while maintaining high accuracy even in low-light or adverse weather conditions.
The edge AI sensing technology showcased by Sony not only demonstrates the power of image sensing applications but also signals that global urban governance and transportation planning are entering a new era of “long-term, high-precision, data-driven” decision-making. For the automotive industry, this means vehicles will increasingly become part of a broader transportation and infrastructure data ecosystem. Future intelligent mobility services, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, and autonomous driving deployments are expected to mature more rapidly thanks to such technologies.