AI for Safer Streets? Obvio’s $22M Raise Doesn’t Solve It All

Obvio, a San Carlos-based startup, just raised $22 million in Series A funding to scale its AI-powered traffic camera system. Led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from Khosla Ventures and Pathlight Ventures, the round reflects growing investor interest in rethinking road safety with technology. But Obvio’s ambitions go beyond building a more efficient ticket machine. They’re trying to make traffic enforcement both more effective and more equitable. Whether they can pull that off remains to be seen. Founded by Dhruv Maheshwari and Ali Rehan, former colleagues at Motive, where they worked on dashcams for commercial fleets, Obvio is focused on curbing reckless driving in urban and suburban neighborhoods. Their product is a solar-powered pylon topped with AI-driven cameras, c