iRASTE’s Collision Avoidance System improving road safety

Hyderabad: Project iRASTE, a partnership of Telangana Government, Intel India, INAI, IIIT-Hyderabad, Central Road Research Institute, Mahindra and Mahindra and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), is fostering better driving practices among drivers and will aid in reducing accidents. About 1.5 lakh lives are lost in India in road fatalities every year. Road accidents involving large vehicles […]

Hyderabad: Project iRASTE, a partnership of Telangana Government, Intel India, INAI, IIIT-Hyderabad, Central Road Research Institute, Mahindra and Mahindra and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), is fostering better driving practices among drivers and will aid in reducing accidents.

About 1.5 lakh lives are lost in India in road fatalities every year. Road accidents involving large vehicles like buses or trucks contribute more fatalities to vulnerable road users (VRUs). About 70% of the accidents are due to driver distraction and indiscipline.

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The intelligent solutions for Road Safety through Technology and Engineering (iRASTE) project aims at making the roads safer. As part of this, collision avoidance devices have been installed on 50 buses in Nagpur for undertaking a pilot to study their effectiveness in improving the safety of public transport buses.

Under the pilot, vehicles and routes assigned to drivers were not constant. The fleet was operated between 5 am and 11 pm. The pilot study analysed three lakh kilometre distance covered by the buses from December 2021 to March 2022. Each driver drove an average 80 km each day.

The AI-powered Collision Avoidance System (CAS) continuously monitored the road ahead. It alerted the drivers of potential collisions with pedestrians, lane departures and forward collision. The system prompted drivers to maintain safe distance from the vehicle ahead. Such real-time warnings improved the driver reaction time.

“We believe that in addition to technology-based interventions, continuous feedback to drivers via trainings and safety campaigns is essential to bring about improvement in safe driving practices,” said Varma Konala, CEO, INAI, an Applied AI research centre.

About 48% of drivers in the study group demonstrated reduction in number of alerts per kilometer. About 65% drivers improved on following safe distance. Among improved drivers, safety alerts reduced by 31% on average. Alert reduction for pedestrian warning was 43%.

However, there were month-on-month variances among drivers implying that periodic reinforcement of safe driving behaviours was essential. Now, the CAS devices are installed in additional 100 buses. “In the next 6 months, Project iRASTE will analyse performance of drivers and conduct periodic trainings. The final goal is to help convert the safer driving behaviour of drivers into a tangible reduction in accidents reported with bus fleet,” he said.