Every Crossing Should Get Your Kids Home Safe
Calgary loses pedestrians every year at crosswalks — especially with no signal, no light, and no warning — many of them steps from a school. TruDiff's DCSD (Dynamic Crosswalk Safety Device) is a retrofit-ready, AI-powered device that detects pedestrians before they step off the curb, lights up the crossing in real time, and gives your city the verified data it needs to prioritize the next investment — and defend the last one.
Pre-seed, prototype stage. Figures below are projections, not measured results.
Crosswalks Are Failing Pedestrians — And Cities Are Paying for It
- Roughly 7,500 pedestrians are killed annually at U.S. crosswalks (NHTSA, 2023) and more than 300 in Canada.
- Pedestrian crashes cost North America an estimated $52B a year (AAA Foundation).
- 40% of pedestrian fatalities happen at marked crosswalks (FHWA).
- Calgary sees 130+ frost days a year — ice, snow glare, and short winter daylight compound the risk at exactly the crossings with the least protection.
- Full smart-intersection upgrades run $500K–$2M per intersection — out of reach for most municipal budgets, and far slower to deploy than the problem demands.
A Retrofit Device That Sees the Crossing Before the Driver Does
The DCSD mounts on existing infrastructure in under four hours — no trenching, no fiber, no road closures.
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Detect
Embedded edge AI identifies pedestrian intent before they step off the curb, adding 2–3 seconds of warning time over passive systems.
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Alert
A dynamic LED projector lights the crosswalk and follows the pedestrian, visible to drivers day or night, in any weather.
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Log
Every activation is time-stamped, cryptographically signed, and synced to a city dashboard — building a verifiable safety record, not a black box.
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Power
Solar plus 72-hour battery backup, rated for Alberta winters. No grid dependency.
Built for the Budget Cities Actually Have
| DCSD | Traditional Signals | HAWK Beacons | Full Smart Intersection | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active AI detection | Yes | No | Reactive only | Yes |
| Retrofit-ready | Yes | Partial | Yes | No |
| Data logging | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Install cost | Priced for municipal budgets — request a quote | $80K–$150K | $40K–$80K | $500K–$2M |
TruDiff is the only retrofit-priced solution that combines active AI detection with verifiable data logging — and every deployment strengthens a proprietary pedestrian-behavior dataset that makes the next installation smarter.
Early, Real Momentum
- In active conversations with two Alberta municipalities, with positive early feedback on the pilot concept.
- Engagement underway with the Calgary Board of Education on school-zone safety priorities.
- Multiple touchpoints with the City of Calgary's Vision Zero program.
- Enrolled in a VC accelerator program; completed the Trade Accelerator Program with a UK export plan.
- Raising a $350K pre-seed SAFE to fund a working prototype and three Calgary pilot installations.
We don't have live deployment data yet — what you see above is real traction toward our first pilots, not measured field results. Anything presented as a metric on this site is a projection until pilots are live.