It's time to kerb crawl and be connected

Connected Kerb is a new start-up is trying to revolutionise the way people and more importantly councils and developers support electric cars by installing multiple charging points in the kerb adjacent to parking bays.

The kerb units are constructed from recycled plastic and have an electric charging point, however they also offer support for V2X (vehicle to vehicle or vehicle to anything) communications which can allow cars to download data back to their owners and the manufacturers (or even deals for servicing etc). In future V2X communications will also convey information back to the car for smart-city applications.

The units are also WiFi enabled, allowing localised hotspot functionality of up to 350Mb/s and can directly support IoT radio standards as well as 5G off-load in conjunction with the mobile networks to remove the notspot issues that will come with higher frequencies that 5G uses.

If that wasn't enough, the units also have air quality, proximity sensors and temperature gauges allowing accurate measurements to be taken at street level. This is especially import for air quality as some existing solutions measure the levels where the sensors are mounted at much higher points thus not giving accurate ground readings.

As well as the kerb unit, there is another version that can be mounted on street furniture such as lampposts and signage poles.

There is currently a trial running in Borough in conjunction with Southwark Council, Virgin Media and National Grid.

Last year Connected Kerb won the Mayor of London’s Award for Urban Innovation.

Hopefully more councils will adopt this technology so really allowing electric vehicle use so electric charging becomes part of the basic infrastructure and not a luxury.