Press release
Saint-Herblain, September 5th, 2016
Autonomous vehicles and road infrastructure
LACROIX City acquires NEAVIA Technologies
Connected and autonomous vehicles are a highly topical issue opening up fantastic opportunities which will radically change travel patterns in the future. It will affect automobile manufacturers, equipment suppliers. as well as road experts. LACROIX City, as a major player in smart roads, launches its first V2X solutions (connected vehicles) through the acquisition of NEAVIA Technologies, the French pioneer in this sector (*), which joined LACROIX Group on August 31st.
NEAVIA Technologies: a strategic acquisition for LACROIX City's offering
NEAVIA Technologies specializes in improving the safety of transport infrastructure through multi-sensors detection, radio-communications and situation analysis. It also consists of an expert R&D team who will enhance LACROIX City's know-how and set up a leading center for connected road infrastructure.
NEAVIA is already a benchmark player with three product lines in the sector of Intelligent Transport Systems: detection solutions (wrong way driver, origin-destination and vehicle travel time), video solutions (autonomous cameras and 360° cameras) and V2X solutions (road side stations and embedded devices).
LACROIX City strengthens its development in connected road infrastructure
The acquisition of NEAVIA stems from LACROIX City's desire to complement its offering and competences in a strategic area: smart roads. Whereas France authorized the testing of autonomous cars on public roads on August 3rd, analysts are predicting tens of millions of autonomous vehicles worldwide in 2035.
With NEAVIA, LACROIX City enhances its position in the field of ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) by providing roads and cities with traffic regulation and management solutions designed to communicate with connected vehicles, then with autonomous vehicles. NEAVIA's technology will be embedded in LACROIX City's equipment, thus creating a unique offering in cooperative ITS, with a full range of connected equipment around traffic lights, traffic controllers, variable message signs, street lighting remote management, preventive speed radars, temporary lights, etc.
For Jean-Hubert WILROD, founder of NEAVIA Technologies, « this integration is an important milestone which will enable the company to accelerate its growth and better serve its customers ».
Vincent Bedouin, LACROIX CEO, said: « The future of road equipment and of the automotive industry will involve regulating and securing traffic, in order to be more efficient, more environmentally friendly, and achieve sustainable mobility. Our Group anticipates today's customer needs for tomorrow's uses ».
LACROIX, along with NEAVIA, steps up relations with highway operators, the DIRs (France's Interdepartmental Road Directorates) and regional authorities willing to implement innovative, concrete and scalable solutions. The Group also aims at creating opportunities with automobile manufacturers and equipment suppliers with which it is already working through LACROIX Electronics.
LACROIX Group is an industrial mid-size company organized around three main businesses based on complementary concepts:
The Group is headquartered in Saint-Herblain and has 4000 employees in France, Tunisia, Germany, Poland, Spain etc. and achieves revenues of €400M. It is headed by CEO Vincent Bedouin, is 70 % family-owned and 30 % listed in the C compartment of Euronext. |
| NEAVIA Technologies specializes in improving smart and environmentally-responsible road information and safety through multi-sensors detection, autonomous cameras, situation analysis and vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure communications (V2X). These solutions are now widely delivered to Interdepartmental Road Directorates, regional authorities and highway operators. (*) And in particular, NEAVIA is one of the main suppliers for the European project of V2X technology pre-deployment: Scoop@F. NEAVIA Technologies was created in 2003 by Jean-Hubert Wilbrod and employs a dozen engineers and experts in Ploufragan (22) and Créteil (94). Neavia Technologies was advised by the firms Linkers and Heenan-Paris for this transaction. |
Press Contact:
Alix de Balsac
+33 1 48 74 18 62 - +33 6 63 11 89 58
a.debalsac@giotto-cr.com
