SAFE · Seismic Traffic Awareness

Road accidents are the eighth-biggest cause of death in the world. In addition to fatalities and irreversible injuries, road accidents incur a large economic impact. In Europe alone, it is estimated that the cost to society of road accidents is €130 billion annually. The main cause of car accidents is speed. It is thus crucial to improve our capacity to detect dangerous driving behaviors and alert in real time.SAFE (Seismic trAFfic awarEness) will develop a breakthrough, light seismic technology to detect vehicles and measure their speed. Originally stemming from the ERC Faultscan project, that uses vehicle-generated vibrations to monitor seismic faults, we discovered an unexpected application. We developed a robust and simple method to estimate vehicle speed using seismic signals from two, closely located seismic sensors with the main advantage of being cheap and invisible (buried underground along the road). In addition, the system does not collect personal data and is thus privacy-preserving. Following a successful proof-of-concept experiment on the campus of the University of Grenoble Alpes (UGA) in June 2025, we are now confident about the feasibility of turning this innovation into a scalable, real-time monitoring solution with a wide range of potential applications. As part of this POC phase, we will deploy 50 seismic ""radars"" across the UGA campus to demonstrate the first live, real-time traffic monitoring system based solely on seismic sensing. In parallel, we are initiating the creation of a startup and engaging early customers. We anticipate rapid growth and a clear path toward industrial-scale deployment. ""