#StartupsEverywhere: Darryl Keeton, Founder and President, Sensagrate
This profile is part of #StartupsEverywhere, an ongoing series highlighting startup leaders in ecosystems across the country. This interview has been edited for length, content, and clarity.
AI to Improve Road Safety and Efficiency
Sensagrate is revolutionizing roadways by providing data on human-driven and autonomous vehicles to enable intelligent decisions and safety on the road. We recently talked with founder and president Darryl Keeton about how the technology works, AI regulation, the essential role of startup accelerators, and more.
Tell us about your background. What led you to Sensagrate?
I was inspired about 5-6 years ago by the Colorado Department of Transportation’s initiative to build a connected vehicle corridor between Golden and Vail. The project highlighted the advancement of smart infrastructure and connected and autonomous vehicle communication (CAV) market and the room for growth. Since then, the CAV space has seen immense innovation but safety remains a concern. My goal with creating Sensagrate was to enhance the safety of autonomous vehicles for the betterment of society through infrastructure.
What is the work you all are doing at Sensagrate?
Sensagrate is a software platform that leverages cameras, LiDAR, radar, and other sensors to serve as a traffic monitoring system for pedestrians and vehicles—including cars, e-scooters, and bikes. We can provide our customers—mostly municipalities—with data regarding these vehicles, including time spent waiting at traffic stops, the number of accidents and “near-misses”, and traffic light optimization. The goal is to improve transportation safety and efficiency through technology—and ultimately save lives.
Sensagrate also plays a key role in the electric vehicle transition. We provide monitoring of electric vehicle charging stations, including utilization data, availability, security, and surveillance. Similarly, we are developing technology to predict the demand for power necessary to fuel electric, sustainable transportation. Overall, we focus on our software and data providing value, with solutions independent from the pre-existing infrastructure.
How does Sensagrate handle privacy and ensure its technology meets customer needs?
At Sensagrate, our focus is on safety, so we don't collect personally identifiable information or do facial or license plate recognition. However, those recognition technologies are everywhere, and an important aspect for us is educating citizens about technology for data collection rather than surveillance. At the end of the day, clients—usually cities—have the power over the data they collect and how they use it.
Another key aspect of our technology is human validation. An example that comes to mind is our collection of data on near-misses and collisions. Outside of the software, we added a human component, where individuals can verify if the event was a near-miss. Overall, we are working to stay in line with the customer’s needs, adapting our technology to fit them.
How do you approach building your technology and why does it matter from a policy standpoint?
As a company, we focus on getting our technology from vendors and manufacturers in the U.S. Unfortunately, that isn’t always possible. The reality is that many products in our stack are better—from a cost and quality standpoint—from international vendors, and have limited availability inside the U.S. In those cases, we try to partner with vendors from allied countries, like Israel or Canada.
Using American vendors isn’t just important to us for supporting jobs here at home, but also because it’s a requirement for federal grants that we want to apply for. A certain percentage of our product must be American-made, and is something we are continuously working towards. In theory, we could buy off the shelf sensors in the US , but the quality compared to international suppliers varies and requires further R&D costs that we don’t have as a startup that has bootstrapped to this point. If more financial support was available, we may be able to perform R&D on more technology solutions in the U.S. and not have to look abroad for our suppliers.
On the software side, the AI models we have integrated include both pre-existing models and models we created from scratch. For example, the AI for the radar comes with the product itself, but we are looking to build our own to our standards in the future. Similarly, we leverage the open-source model provided with our cameras, but improve it to best fit the needs of our customers and the data we are collecting. The model associated with LiDAR on the other hand, is one we created from scratch. I think that's an important context for how startups like us are building with AI.
What should policymakers keep in mind when it comes to AI?
I come from a regulatory background, and I know regulation in the AI space is coming. But regulation needs to be done with startups and entrepreneurship in mind, rather than big corporations. If not, there will be a pause in AI growth and development following the regulation implementation, as small businesses will have to jump through more hurdles to get their ideas off the ground. There must be space for R&D and innovation within the regulation to prevent the stalling of AI growth, as well as resources to help startups with the increased expenses associated with compliance.
How have accelerators and incubators helped you on your entrepreneurial journey?
Accelerators have provided us with important connections on both the commercial and development sides. Through these programs, we have connected with manufacturers from abroad, as well as partnered and piloted our technology with municipalities in the U.S. A crucial aspect of these programs are their resources, and their ability to connect startups with them, opening doors that we didn’t have before.
What are your goals for Sensagrate moving forward?
Currently, we are wrapping up our capital funding round and looking forward to the continued growth of our business. We are also working to continue our customer outreach and pre-existing partnerships. Overall, there are a lot of new opportunities and developments in the works.
All of the information in this profile was accurate at the date and time of publication.
Engine works to ensure that policymakers look for insight from the startup ecosystem when they are considering programs and legislation that affect entrepreneurs. Together, our voice is louder and more effective. Many of our lawmakers do not have first-hand experience with the country's thriving startup ecosystem, so it’s our job to amplify that perspective. To nominate a person, company, or organization to be featured in our #StartupsEverywhere series, email advocacy@engine.is.
