Sanral searching for innovators to work with on smart road solutions

Are you working on, or have you developed smart road solutions that could contribute to road safety? State-owned enterprise the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) is looking for such startups that it can work with.

Sanral Technical Innovation Hub head Kobus van der Walt (pictured above) told Venturburn in an email last Wednesday (27 February) that the agency wants to work with innovators to “potentially” incubate their ideas and develop workable solutions that can be implemented.

To be considered, projects will have to be in line with Sanral’s strategic objectives.

“Research is costly, so instead of re-inventing the wheel, Sanral would like to partner with industry role players who may have already done research in certain fields, to collectively create smart road solutions that prioritise road safety, to benefit the road user at large,” said Van der Walt.

Sanral established a Technical Innovation Hub last year and is looking for startups to work with

Van der Walt’s comments follow the agency’s launch last month of its Technical Innovation Hub which will be run from its Western Region office in Cape Town.

He said the hub was established last year in April, in response to the challenge of “rapidly evolving” smart road technologies and global innovation. Sanral’s Horizon 2030 strategy, he pointed out, prioritises innovation.

It is not yet clear how much Sanral has set aside for the hub. Van der Walt told Ventureburn that the road agency is in the process of identifying projects for research and development and that pending the outcome of this process, will allocate a suitable budget.

Examples of solutions that the hub is interested in include augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR), road sensors, electric and automated vehicles, alternative materials, drones and video analytics.

Van der Walt said the hub plans to put together several hackathons that will take place in the coming months.

Featured image: Sanral Technical Innovation Hub head Kobus van der Walt speaking at the launch of the hub in Cape Town last month (Supplied)