Abertis launches a new challenge to startups around the world to achieve ‘zero accidents’

In this second edition, the challenge is focused on the use of satellite and vehicle data, combined with artificial intelligence, to transform traffic management and road safety. The challenge mainly focuses on improving infrastructure monitoring, making a leap in the ability to obtain data, identify dangerous situations and anticipate in order to prevent through data analysis and improve the management of accidents by mitigating their effects with a also data-driven response. Until January 24, interested startups can submit their applications through the website beyondroads.abertis.com. The proposals will be evaluated by a committee of experts made up of members from the different countries in which the Abertis group is present. The winner, who will be announced in May 2025, will receive a reward estimated at 40,000 euros for the development of a pilot in one of the countries in which the Spanish multinational operates. The three finalist solutions will also receive a financial prize of 6,000 euros.

Participants must show the ability to acquire and process data, key aspects to guarantee an effective solution, as well as define what type of data they need to develop their solution and how they plan to obtain it. If the proposal includes the use of AI/ML algorithms, they must meet security, sustainability, governance, and monitoring criteria.

The new challenge seeks to incorporate solutions based on new data sources, prioritizing those obtained by satellite and through vehicles. In the event that the solutions presented are based on any other source, there must be a disruption in their use. This is data from navigation or geolocation applications, mobile devices, highway cameras, traffic sensors, data on weather conditions, data on interventions on the track, data on mass events near the highway such as festivals or concerts, or data on traffic forecasts.

In search of excellence

Antonio Durán, global head of Innovation at Abertis, points out that the company seeks excellence in road safety, and “Artificial Intelligence can help us improve predictive models, provide a faster and more effective response, minimizing the risks and consequences of accidents, and to add new differential solutions that substantially improve the current operation on our high-capacity roads, which are already distinguished by their safety and efficiency.

For her part, Georgina Flamme, director of the Abertis Foundation, adds that “this is one of the most ambitious projects that currently exist in the field of infrastructure innovation and encourages us to pursue such necessary objectives as ‘accident rate’. zero’ on roads, which is one of the pillars on which the Abertis Foundation develops its activity.

25 years of environmental, social and cultural impact

Abertis Foundation celebrates its 25th anniversary this year “in which it values ​​the contribution to the sustainable development of the territories where the company is present with the vision of helping to facilitate the implementation of projects that have a social, economic and cultural impact”, underlines the president of the Foundation, Elena Salgado. Thus, it has promoted more than 700 scholarship holders around the world. It has also developed collaborations and strategic alliances focused on promoting social, environmental and cultural development.

Road safety is one of its key axes and through international awareness campaigns such as ‘Lives in motion’, ‘I’ll take you’, ‘I can wait’, or ‘El Apagón’, it has sought to raise awareness about the problems of current mobility. , as well as warn about the risks of driving recklessly. In this sense, it finances the Road Safety Education program.We have to repeat‘, directed by Sebas Lorente, which has impacted more than 16,000 students from more than a hundred Spanish educational centers in six years. Since 2017, it has also been a strategic ally of Unicef ​​in the fight against one of the main causes of death among schoolchildren: traffic accidents. In the environmental field, since 2014 the headquarters of the Abertis Foundation, Castellet Castle (Barcelona), is the UNESCO International Center for Mediterranean Biosphere Reserves. This is a pioneering model of public-private collaboration within the framework of the UN MaB (Man and Biosphere) Programme. In 2003, it launched the International Network of Abertis Chairs to promote the transfer of knowledge between universities and companies and, since then, nearly 900 researchers and students from 15 different nationalities have participated. In the cultural field, Abertis Foundation has taken the work of great Spanish artists to different countries.