Obvio thinks they’ve found a way to make intersections safer without turning cities into a place where everyone feels watched.
The company, based in San Carlos, has just landed a huge twenty two million dollar investment, fueled by confidence in their approach of combining safety and privacy. Instead of blanketing entire neighborhoods in monitoring, Obvio installs bright orange pylons topped with solar cameras right at stop signs to catch only the most serious violations.
Obvio’s co-founders, Ali Rehan and Dhruv Maheshwari, came up with the idea after seeing just how often drivers took risks at intersections. They met while working in the trucking tech sector, where they realized passenger cars were just as dangerous. Becoming obsessed with road safety, they noticed how far behind the United States was compared to other places that already use speed cameras and have ingrained driving awareness.
Despite mounting frustrations with crowded streets and ever-rising pedestrian deaths, many American cities have struggled to evolve enforcement methods. Traditional tactics like traffic cops and public awareness campaigns can only go so far. Redesigning intersections costs millions and can take years.
How Obvio’s Cameras Work Without Overstepping Privacy
Obvio’s hardware stands out visibly on purpose, designed to remind drivers they’re being watched while also educating communities about safe behavior. The device processes footage on location, and only violation clips ever get shared with local authorities.
When a car blows past a stop sign or commits another dangerous move, the camera snaps into action — capturing the moment, pulling license plate data, and matching it with DMV records. Nothing goes straight to law enforcement, though. Human staff members or trusted contractors double check each case before it reaches anyone in uniform.
Every city sees something different in how citation profits get split up, since state rules differ. While that fact means more tickets could generate more cash, Obvio’s founders claim their goal is bigger than making revenue from minor mistakes. They say the company is committed to working side by side with communities, not just dropping in technology and disappearing, and will focus on changing the most dangerous behavior, not petty infractions.
The tech was built with data protections from the start. If no violation occurs, the camera holds footage for twelve hours, then deletes it, keeping extraneous content out of broader databases. The cities themselves own the footage and can access it only as needed.
Investors like Bain Capital Ventures believe this careful approach to privacy will be crucial if Obvio wants to expand into cities nationwide. There’s acknowledgment that quick profit could come from widening surveillance, but in the long run, public trust is essential for a product that’s meant to keep people safer, similar to how stop sign cameras use AI to root out unsafe drivers and recent AI funding announcements highlight investments in safety and privacy technology.
