To start with a worrying statistic: India, despite being home to only 1% of the world’s vehicles, is responsible for almost 11% of road accidents worldwide. India is said to see 17 deaths every hour due to road accidents. Clearly, there is a pressing need to make Indian roads safer.
And the big tech company Intel thinks this is possible through an artificial intelligence (AI)-based approach. In a way, what he says is that AI can be a counter-attack to driver stupidity, which is among the leading causes of fatal road accidents. Under the umbrella of Intel, a ‘Safety Pioneers Conference’ was held yesterday, where organizations from industry, academia and government put their collective heads together for the idea of road safety.
At the conference, Intel showcased the ‘Intel Onboard Fleet Services solution’ which is said to have been specifically designed for India’s commercial vehicle fleets with a focus on safety and predictability as well as saving lives on the road. AI-based Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) seeks to bring sensor-based safety tools and corresponding analytics to the Indian truck industry. Intel also plans to manufacture the driver assistance hardware in India. Intel said its technology can reduce the likelihood of accidents by 40% to 60%.
Road accidents can be reduced by 50%
Backed by its subsidiary Mobileye — the Israeli automotive intelligence company it acquired in 2017 — the package includes a wide range of services such as collision avoidance systems, driver monitoring, fleet telematics, fleet health and analytics. fuel efficiency, among others.
Speaking of analysis, Intel has already collected 3 million kilometers of road data in partnership with IIIT Hyderabad (International Institute of Information Technology-Hyderabad) and CRRI (Central Road Research Institute) to design a safety solution for Indian roads.
Intel and others are jointly running the project called iRASTE (intelligent solutions for road safety through technology and engineering) in Nagpur. There are plans to replicate the model in other cities in India.
Harnessing the power of AI, the iRASTE project (with a two-year timeframe) aims to achieve up to a 50% reduction in road accidents in the city of Nagpur and create a plan for the country. The project focuses on vehicle safety, mobility analysis and road infrastructure safety.
How Intel’s New System Works
Intel’s system, which runs on algorithms tailored to Indian road conditions, offers features such as collision avoidance systems (CAS), driver monitoring systems, fleet telematics, fleet health and fuel efficiency features. ADAS will provide alerts, while driver assessments and training can noticeably improve driver performance.
Mobility analytics will continuously monitor the dynamic hazards of the entire road network to define gray and black dots – high-risk or accident-prone areas. Preventive maintenance of these stretches will prevent black spots before they take lives.
Intel’s solution, currently used by 16 logistics and transportation companies in India, combines hardware and software. Intel customers in India will see their trucks receive a series of sensors to provide these services. A cloud-based portal will later provide analytics and telemetry data on the road to better detect the chances of breakdowns or maintenance requirements – thus increasing efficiency. Those using Intel’s Onboard Fleet Services will also receive driver guidance to get used to these features.
ADAS services, often colloquially referred to as ‘autonomous automobiles’, use a wide range of tools such as radio sensing and range sensors (radar), light sensing and range sensors (lidar), cameras, machine learning algorithms and computers aboard a vehicle to help a car make its own decisions in various situations. These decisions translate into features such as automatic emergency braking, lane keeping, driver fatigue warning, adaptive cruise control, etc.