How is AI Influencing Traffic Safety and Jaywalking Detection?
In this millennium, the overall potential of Artificial Intelligence has reached another height altogether. Although, this field has been under many trials and errors since an earlier period, it’s just over the past few decades that AI has grown out of the test-tube to win over the real-world challenges. Road safety is one such field that is standing to gain from AI right now.
It won’t be too far-fetched to assume that the unprecedented growth in AI will usher in the next quantum leaps in road safety very soon. Recently, multiple applications of Artificial Intelligence have been found to redefine some hitherto unexplored aspects of traffic safety as well as jaywalking detection.
Wondering how? Take out some time to read the following excerpt to resolve quench your inquisitions.
- Artificial Intelligence and Road Safety
It’s shocking that over one million passengers die of fatal accidents or road traffic crashes every year. Almost ninety percent of the world’s road fatalities take place in the low or middle-income countries, which surprisingly have only sixty percent of vehicles in the world.
Pedestrians, car drivers, motorcyclists, and cyclists are most likely to fall prey to road fatalities. These ratios or facts are terrifying. The most heart-rending fact is that all these fatal accidents or tragic demises never happened if people drove a bit more sincerely.
Artificial Intelligence has potentials galore to bolster road or traffic safety. Deep learning methods can be extremely useful in identifying various driving conditions of different roads. The highly-advanced AI technologies can recognise many obstacles, hazards, and objects from a safe distance and alert the driver regarding the same.
These heavy-duty technologies are developed into different applications named ADAS or ‘Advanced Driver Assistance Systems.’ Upon sensing the hazardous conditions of roads, these technologies start working on cameras and some other sensor data in order to alert the drivers.
Accidents caused by the drowsiness of drivers are no longer a strange phenomenon. There is this additional application named ‘Driver Monitoring System,’ which continuously monitors a driver for his/her drowsiness. To keep a tab on the behaviours of a fleet driver, the Fleet Telematics Systems have combined various vehicle parameters with different road conditions.
The world’s biggest tech companies are relentlessly working on a number of AI-based solutions for monitoring drivers’ behaviou organizationrs in order to adjust their vehicles accordingly, identify potholes, and the likes.
The futuristic AI technologies are constantly working on an assortment of road safety bolstering solutions like frontal collision signal system, land departure warning, parking assist, intelligent speed assistance, emergency distress signals, electronic stability control, night vision, blind spot monitoring system, and the likes.
The advanced infrastructure can play an important role in empowering traffic safety. Take, for instance, an ultra-smart road with sensors that can convey information about various road conditions. It can even help get in touch with emergency service providers in the event of a road accident, etc.
There’s a top-notch organisation in Denver, where there is a section of advanced pavement that can identify the weight, speed, and direction of a car. The data collected could be used to inform the authorities if a mishap happens or to allow the officials to know exactly when to reconfigure different traffic lanes for cutting short on congestion.
- The Impacts of AI on Jaywalking Detection
Jaywalking has become one of the biggest concerns at almost every nook and cranny of the globe. The number of injuries or deaths caused by jaywalking has witnessed a steep rise over the past few decades.
According to some recent reports, a large chunk of pedestrians get killed or fatally injured by vehicles almost every day on the streets of the United States. The casualties are disproportionately seniors or children. The crisis of pedestrian safety is getting direr in lightning speed.
Out of all the countries that are grappling with Jaywalking, China deserves a prominent mention, indeed. Jaywalking has been a serious problem in China. It could seldom get resolved by imposing fines or even clicking pictures of the offenders.
To solve this issue, China has recently taken refuge in technology and Artificial Intelligence. Now with facial recognition technologies and AI, jaywalkers will not just get publicly shamed, but they will also be alerted for their wrongdoing through instant text messages.
Whoever gets caught violating the traffic rules would have to pay a hefty fine. It’s anticipated that such a smart combination of technology and psychology would help China dwindle the frequency of fatalities caused by jaywalking. It is expected to prevent many repeated offences in the days to come as well.
A Shenzhen-based organisation has begun to provide the city’s traffic police with an advanced technology to identify the faces of jaywalkers on gigantic LED screens. It is also interacting with the local mobile phone brands and different social media platforms like Sina Weibo, WeChat, etc. to grow a solid system where the wrongdoers would get personal messages on violating traffic rules.
The city of Shenzhen has recently installed heavy-duty cameras with 7 million pixels of resolution for capturing high-quality images of pedestrians who would cross the road violating traffic rules.
Facial recognition technology can identify every individual from a database and exhibit his/her offence of jaywalking, family details, Govt. identification number, etc. on gigantic LED screens.
The system can also register exactly how many times a person has violated traffic rules. Once this ratio goes beyond a certain point, it would affect the wrongdoer’s social credit score that in turn might restrict his/her ability of taking out loans from any financial institution or bank.
- Final Words –
Not only China or the United States, but every country worldwide must be aimed at an augmented road and traffic safety system where AI and the top tech-honchos will work together for coming up with the finest outcomes for protecting pedestrians and vehicle drivers.
With the increasingly growing population and new complexities marring road safety, the need of intervening Artificial Intelligence in traffic safety has become paramount to bring down road fatalities across the globe.
Mukesh Kumar Sinha, Co- Founder & COO, Gravitas AI
