Empowering Cities to Improve Transportation Infrastructure with GridMatrix

The vision behind GridMatrix, founded in 2021, began to form when the company’s cofounders noticed that transportation infrastructure abroad was more advanced than what they saw deployed in the United States. “We were traveling a lot for our jobs and saw infrastructure that was light-years ahead of what we had at home,” says Nick D’Andre, chief executive officer (CEO) and cofounder of GridMatrix. “Our conversation went from, ‘Someone should do something about this’ to ‘We can do something about this.’”

The resulting product, a cloud-based traffic data and analytics solution, uses machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence to perform cloud-based processing of video feeds, lidar feeds, and other data streams from sensors throughout cities. This raw data is converted into analytics on signal performance, congestion, emissions, and safety. “Using our continuous stream of analytics, we can make predictions, such as how much emissions will be produced from idling at an intersection if the speed limit is raised or how many more accidents will occur if traffic signal timing is changed,” says D’Andre.

GridMatrix wanted to use AWS to achieve cost optimization and was able to reduce the cost of running its sensors by 60 percent within 2 years. The company also opted to build on AWS because it wanted the flexibility of combining various AWS solutions to meet its objectives. To perform predictive analytics, GridMatrix adopted Amazon SageMaker, a service for building, training, and deploying ML models. For data collection, it relies on Amazon Kinesis Data Streams, a serverless streaming data service that makes it easier to capture, process, and store data streams at virtually any scale. GridMatrix also uses AWS to meet its customers’ high standards for data privacy and security. “Our customers include some of the largest transit agencies in the United States,” says D’Andre. “Because we built on AWS, there’s an added layer of credibility when we approach our customers.”

GridMatrix launched a minimum viable product in early 2022 after 6 months of development. Following development, a successful pilot program in 2022 served as a springboard to growth. As of 2023, GridMatrix has deployed in 12 cities in the United States and a city in Europe, with a few others launching soon. Using AWS, GridMatrix can scale quickly to serve its growing customer base, including cities ranging in size from 100,000 residents to more than 8 million. Deploying its solution across a city takes 2–4 weeks. “We don’t have to build out server infrastructure each time,” says Kyle Pickett, director of governmental affairs at GridMatrix. “That makes the solution faster and more seamless to use and scale.” Additionally, GridMatrix’s cloud-based solution is more reliable than competing products that use hardware. It features self-healing mechanisms—if a sensor goes down, a protocol automatically runs to bring it back up.

GridMatrix’s customers have already seen significant benefits, with one major US city achieving a 20 percent reduction in emissions at a problematic intersection by reducing idling. GridMatrix can also identify a city’s most dangerous intersection in seconds and identify the cause within minutes. “In the past, our customer would have had to work anecdotally,” says D’Andre. “They’d get a lot of complaints about a location or there would be an accident. Today, we can tell them if there is a high probability that an accident will occur at that location.” This system provides cities with data to use in grant applications, public transparency reporting, and policy evaluations to implement remedies and make intersections safer.

Although some customers had previously used internal models for predictive traffic analytics, they had to rely on simulated data because actual data was too difficult to obtain. Using real data from GridMatrix with their existing models, they can reduce errors by 10–15 percent and get more accurate results.

Now that GridMatrix has provided a secure, scalable solution for traffic management by building its innovative analytics solution on AWS, the company continues to expand its reach. Next, GridMatrix plans to widen its user base to include customers such as transportation agencies, transit authorities, and airports. GridMatrix is also working with transit agencies on capabilities like predictive route planning, route acceleration, and blockage removal to help these agencies operate more efficiently. Currently, the data science team at GridMatrix is developing a product that will help transit authorities in major US cities input data to produce a predictive picture of route safety.

The company is confident that by using AWS, it can continue to seamlessly scale and develop innovative solutions to help cities improve safety, reduce carbon emissions, and make transportation more accessible. “Every deployment we’ve done has been bigger than the last,” says D’Andre. “Using AWS has been an accelerant.”

Founded in 2021, GridMatrix builds transportation data and analytics software that uses cities’ existing traffic infrastructure to reduce congestion, emissions, and accidents. The company is headquartered in San Francisco.

Organizations of all sizes across all industries are transforming their businesses and delivering on their missions every day using AWS. Contact our experts and start your own AWS journey today.