AI smart device generates data for safety policies

Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) help reduce road accidents and boost driver safety?

To test this, a smart device developed by a Bengaluru-based tech firm Netradyne was integrated into five women-driven cars in a recent 3,500-km India Against Road Crash (IARC) drive from Amritsar to Kanyakumari.

Based on vision, the device Driver-i is designed to alert drivers and avert accidents. Non-government platform, Drive Smart Drive Safe (D2S) will now analyse the Driver-i data and present its findings to the Union Ministry for Road Transport and Highways.

The ministry is collating data to guide its future policy decisions designed to institutionalise safe-driving practices and road safety culture in the country.

Dubbed the ‘Safe Speed Challenge,’ the five women drivers were put through a stringent ‘safe driving skills’ test with live location and speed tracking.

Driver-i generated high-definition real-time videos on driving incidents during the drive, which were later posted to D2S social media platforms to raise public awareness on road safety.

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari had flagged off the drive as part of the National Road Safety Month in February 2021.

The ministry will use the data captured by Driver-i to upgrade road infrastructure along the car rally route and also reward good driving behaviour.

To record and trigger audio alerts, the smart device had two inward cameras on and two outward-looking cameras off.

The alerts ranged from drowsiness detection to Forward Collision Warning (FCW) to avert accidents for the challengers.

One of the challengers, Bengaluru-based Amritha Arvind recalls: “The device alerted me during two to three major incidents during my journey. At one time, it warned me when I was feeling drowsy and I pulled over to rest.”

India has the highest number of road accident deaths across 199 countries reported in the World Road Statistics 2018.

Netradyne had earlier done a pilot study with Robert Bosch Centre for Cyber-Physical Systems at the Indian Institute of Science as a technical consultant and Zoomcar to reduce road accidents in India.