Ouster BlueCity: Powering Smart, Safer Roads with ADAS & V2X

The past decade has witnessed a concerning rise in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities in the U.S. According to preliminary data released by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), there were 7,318 projected pedestrian fatalities in the United States in 2023, down 5.4% from the previous year but 14.1% higher than 2019. The GHSA also reported that 1,149 cyclists were killed on U.S. roadways in 2023, a 4% increase from 2022. This trend contributes to real and perceived safety threats, as nearly 25% of U.S. adults reported that traffic is a barrier to safe walking. Of these, 79% selected vehicle speed as a contributing traffic characteristic.

Factors contributing to pedestrian and cyclist fatalities include:

• Limitations of traditional detection methods: Legacy traffic sensors and cameras often struggle to detect, classify, and identify the accurate geolocation of vehicles and pedestrians, especially in low light or poor weather conditions, leading to inefficient signal timing and missed safety events.

• Increased vulnerable road user (VRU) activity: With growing emphasis on sustainable transportation and active lifestyles, more pedestrians and cyclists share our roadways, increasing the need for dedicated VRU safety measures.

• Complex urban environments: Intersections, in particular, present significant challenges due to the convergence of various traffic flows and potential conflicts, demanding more intelligent traffic management solutions.

• Data silos: Valuable ITS data related to safety is often fragmented across different systems, hindering comprehensive analysis and proactive interventions for effective transportation planning.

Across the globe, transportation agencies, municipalities, traffic engineers, and research universities are responding to road safety challenges. They are united by a critical goal: the pursuit of Vision Zero – eliminating all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, and increasing safe mobility for all. Achieving this ambitious target requires a multi-faceted approach, leveraging data-driven insights and innovative technologies to understand and mitigate risks for all road users: pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists.

Since its adoption in 1997 by the Swedish Parliament, the Vision Zero framework has gained global traction and has been implemented in numerous countries worldwide. In the United States, the Vision Zero Network recognized 53 communities that met their established criteria for Vision Zero adoption as of August 2022. That number increased to nearly 70 as of February 2025. The development of Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication has been greatly influenced by Vision Zero, as these technologies are key enablers of its ambitious goals to enhance road safety through the strategic use of technology.

How component-based architecture reduces serialization overhead

In ROS 2, the component-based architecture and Intra-Process Communication (IPC) are game-changers for performance-critical applications like lidar processing. They directly address the massive overhead of data serialization and deserialization that was a bottleneck in ROS 1.

The problem: A "Before" picture with separate nodes

Imagine a traditional ROS 1 or a non-component ROS 2 system for processing Ouster lidar data. You would likely have at least two separate nodes: a ouster_driver node to talk to the physical lidar sensor, and a perception_filter node to process the data for the navigation stack.

With an Ouster lidar generating several megabytes of data per frame, every single frame would undergo a costly process:

1. The ouster_driver node constructs a sensor_msgs/msg/PointCloud2 message.

2. The message is serialized into a byte stream.

3. This byte stream is sent across the network via the ROS 2 middleware (DDS).

4. The perception_filter node receives the byte stream.

5. The byte stream is deserialized back into a message object.

This CPU-intensive process is repeated for every single frame, introducing significant latency and consuming resources that could be used for more critical tasks like SLAM or perception.

The Solution: The "After" picture with a component manager

The Ouster ROS 2 driver is designed as a set of components that can be loaded into a single process, managed by a ComponentManager. This allows for zero-copy data transfer through Intra-Process Communication (IPC).

Here's how this changes the data flow:

1. The OusterDriver component receives raw data.

2. It processes the data and constructs a sensor_msgs/msg/PointCloud2 message in the shared process memory.

3. Instead of serializing the data, the component's publisher sends a pointer or reference to the message in memory.

4. The PointCloudProcessor component's subscriber receives this pointer.

5. The PerceptionFilter can immediately access the message data directly from memory without any serialization or deserialization.

This completely bypasses the most expensive part of the process, drastically reducing CPU usage and message latency.

The rise of ADAS to improve road user safety

The landscape of vehicles on our roads is rapidly evolving with the increasing integration of ADAS. Today's vehicles feature a growing array of driver assistance technologies with the core purpose of reducing fatalities and preventing injuries. These actions range from timely warnings of imminent collision risks to automatic emergency braking and lane-keeping assist systems to more sophisticated systems that pave the way for eventual autonomous driving. The European Union aims for a 50% reduction in road fatalities between 2019 and 2030, with the goal of achieving near-zero fatalities by 2050. To achieve these goals, wide-scale adoption of road safety technologies, including ADAS, is expected. The Partnership for Analytics and Research in Traffic Safety reports that ADAS penetration in new vehicles is already substantial, with 10 out of 14 key ADAS features exceeding 50% market penetration, and 5 surpassing 90%.

To fully realize the safety potential of ADAS-equipped vehicles, it is crucial to modernize road safety infrastructure. While ADAS technologies show promise in mitigating certain types of crashes, their effectiveness can be significantly enhanced by smarter infrastructure that provides richer, real-time data about vulnerable road users and dynamic environmental conditions. This necessitates evolution beyond basic traffic signals and static signage towards intelligent infrastructure capable of communicating directly with vehicles, pedestrians, and cyclists facing risks. The trend towards infrastructure communication is closely tied to V2X technology. The V2X market was valued at USD 3.59 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 42.69 billion by 2031, which suggests that V2X may become a long-term fixture in infrastructure plans.

Introducing V2X: A new era of connected mobility and smart infrastructure

V2X communication technology is rapidly expanding and transforming road safety efforts, fueled by connected car advancements, a stronger focus on traffic safety, and supportive government and regulatory initiatives. At its core, V2X enables connected vehicles to communicate wirelessly with:

• Other vehicles (V2V)

• Infrastructure (V2I - also known as smart infrastructure)

• Pedestrians (V2P)

• The broader network (V2N)

This real-time exchange of information fosters cooperative perception and holds immense potential for improving situational awareness and preventing fatalities and injuries. Enhanced road safety relies heavily on assisted driving technology, and V2X communication facilitates the crucial real-time data exchange among vehicles and their surrounding environment.

Initially focused on V2V for collision avoidance, V2X has evolved to encompass infrastructure-based intelligence. Roadside Units (RSUs) can now broadcast critical information like signal phase and timing (SPAT). At the same time, connected vehicles equipped with Onboard Units (OBUs) can receive and utilize this data for enhanced decision-making and ADAS.

In a significant move for transportation technology, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted final rules on cellular-vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) in a unanimous, bipartisan Second Report and Order on November 21, 2024. This FCC action paves the way for C-V2X to revolutionize communication between vehicles, roadside infrastructure, and other road users, providing safer and more efficient mobility. By enabling this direct communication, C-V2X aims to reduce crashes, improve traffic flow, support autonomous vehicle development, and drive the modernization of road infrastructure. The clarity these regulations provide is expected to drive innovation and economic growth, fueling the adoption of connected and intelligent transportation technologies. Among these advanced technologies, three-dimensional (3D) digital lidar-powered solutions stand out as a leading contender.

Ouster BlueCity: Intelligent infrastructure for a connected future

Ouster is at the forefront of road infrastructure modernization, V2X, and intelligent transportation transformation. Ouster BlueCity is a turnkey solution that combines Ouster’s 3D digital lidar with its deep learning AI perception software and data analytics. It enables the creation of a real-time 3D digital traffic twin of an intersection or road to reliably detect, classify, and track multimodal road users—in all weather and lighting—for a modernized traffic and road safety solution.

Ready to modernize your intersections and roadways?

Ouster BlueCity is helping to enable the industry shift from static to smart road infrastructure. With a 3D lidar-powered solution that delivers accurate detection, classification, and tracking, combined with robust safety analytics, transportation agencies and municipalities can modernize road infrastructure in a cost-effective all-in-one solution. This approach effectively prepares infrastructure for the requirements of ADAS and facilitates seamless V2X communication, paving the way for safer, more efficient, and truly connected transportation systems.

Contact us today to learn how our Ouster BlueCity can benefit your community and contribute to safer intersections and corridors.