Curbs aren’t simply for buses, taxis, deliveries, or parking anymore. Bike lanes, ride-hailing, same-day delivery, dockless vehicles, and more affect these traditional use cases. Cities and investors are prioritising curb space management software.

Automotus, a four-year-old firm that automates curb maintenance, raised $9 million in a venture round. The company claims their technology can reduce traffic and pollution by 10%, make parking safer by 64%, boost turnover by 26%, and make cities more than 500% more money from parking.

Automotus works with cities including Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Omaha, and Bethlehem to automate payments for unloading and parking vehicles, enforce curb infractions, and manage preferential loading zones and discounted rates for commercial EVs, the business stated.

March 2021 seed funding gave Automotus $1.2 million. The company has made $7.8 million in the past year and a half. CityRock Venture Partners, Quake Capital, Bridge Investments, Unbridled Ventures, Keiki Capital, NY Angels, Irish Angels, SUM Ventures, and LA’s Cleantech Incubator Impact Fund managed recent funds.

Automotus delivers software as a service, but data collection requires the necessary hardware. The business installs cellular-connected cameras with Automotus’s computer vision technology in its partner cities. Traffic lights and street lights with plenty of loading and unloading or no delivery emissions have cameras.

Automotus’s technology eliminates meters and apps. License plate cameras automatically collect data, transmit parking fees, and issue citations to city rulebreakers. For privacy, the technology blurs faces and removes identifying information.

Image credit: Automotus