Smarter Streets Ahead: AI Platform Sets Blueprint For Urban Innovation

A breakthrough in AI-powered traffic management is putting the future of city infrastructure on the fast track — and it’s a vision that could soon be applied across cities in Australia and New Zealand.

Milestone Systems has unveiled a next-gen video data platform, Project Hafnia, developed in partnership with NVIDIA and now rolling out in European cities following its inception in the US. At its core, Hafnia is designed to power smarter, safer and more efficient cities through ethically sourced and regulation-compliant video AI models — a concept equally applicable in the Southern Hemisphere.

With traffic congestion, pedestrian safety, and public surveillance emerging as key challenges for growing urban centres across ANZ, Project Hafnia offers a roadmap for leveraging AI responsibly. The system uses NVIDIA’s advanced GPU platforms and large-scale video datasets — both real and synthetic — to train visual language models (VLMs) that can help city officials understand traffic flows, detect hazards, or summarise surveillance footage for faster response.

“Our cities don’t just need more data, they need better, smarter data,” said Thomas Jensen, CEO of Milestone. “With Project Hafnia, we’re building the digital foundation for cities that are safer, more transparent, and AI-enabled — without compromising public trust or privacy.”

While currently operational in Genoa, Italy, the platform is built to scale globally. The opportunity for ANZ councils lies in adapting this blueprint to local conditions, unlocking better traffic coordination, real-time monitoring, and urban planning insights — all with compliance and citizen protection at its heart.

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