Artificial intelligence being steered toward safer driving
Each year, about 1.35 million people are killed in crashes on the world's roads, and as many as 50 million others are seriously injured, according to the World Health Organization. In the United States, fatalities rose drastically during the pandemic, leading to the largest six-month spike ever recorded, according to estimates from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Speeding, distraction, impaired driving and not wearing a seat belt were top causes.
Artificial intelligence is already being used to enhance driving safety: cellphone apps that monitor behavior behind the wheel and reward safe drivers with perks, and connected vehicles that communicate with each other and with road infrastructure.
But what lies ahead? Can AI do what humans cannot? And will the technology develop before the proliferation of self-driving cars?
“In my view, there is too much hype around AI, road safety and self-driving vehicles — it is super inflated,” said David Ward, president of the Global New Car Assessment Program, a nonprofit based in London. The focus, he said, should be on “the low-hanging fruit and not on some far-off utopian promise.”
Advocates like Ward look to beneficial, low-cost, intermediate technologies that are available now. A prime example is intelligent speed assistance, or ISA, which uses AI to manage a car's speed via in-vehicle cameras and maps. The technology will be mandatory in all new vehicles in the European Union beginning in July but has yet to take hold in the United States.
Acusensus, based in Australia, is among the companies that employ artificial intelligence to address road safety. Its cameras — “intelligent eyes,” as Acusensus calls them — use high-resolution imaging in conjunction with machine learning to identify dangerous driving behaviors that are often difficult to detect and enforce.
“We've got technology that can save lives,” said Mark Etzbach, the company's vice president of sales for North America.
The patent-pending technology, which unlike the human eye is unaffected by weather conditions or high speeds, can view and record behavior inside the vehicle, Etzbach said. Cameras can be installed on existing roadside infrastructure, like overpasses, messaging signs or movable structures. Images are then optimized for AI, which is trained to specific parameters.
Acusensus' algorithms can determine with a high degree of probability whether a particular driver is engaged in risky behavior, the company says. “We can assess distraction,” Etzbach said. “We can assess occupant restraint. We can assess vehicle speed. We're able to look at three behaviors at the same time. Well over 90% of the behaviors are happening below the dashboard.”
Such technology would give law enforcement the ability to see clearly whether a driver is holding something besides the steering wheel — like a phone, perhaps — and whether that driver is looking down to text someone. (An invisible flash enables clear penetration of the windshield.)
The technology was developed by Acusensus cofounder Alexander Jannink after a friend and fellow software engineer was killed while biking in 2013.
“He got struck and killed by an impaired driver that was also believed to be distracted,” Etzbach said.
The company's primary product, Heads-Up, was first rolled out in 2019 in New South Wales, Australia.
The Heads-Up system captures images that are later screened by authorities for the likelihood of an offense. In the first two years, the company says, the state experienced a 22% reduction in fatalities and a reduction in phone use of more than 80%. The technology is currently deployed in New South Wales and Queensland, with additional pilot projects elsewhere in Australia and abroad.
The next iteration of the technology, Heads-Up Real Time, is being proposed for deployment in the United States. Data and images would be sent in real time to officers in patrol cars, which they can then view on laptops.
“It's about being able to leverage technology, and AI in this case, to help us better understand what people are doing behind the wheel that potentially puts themselves and others at risk,” said Pam Shadel Fischer, senior director of external engagement for the Governors Highway Safety Association,
a nonprofit representing state highway safety offices. “We think there's real potential here.”
When there is high-visibility traffic enforcement — officers in marked cars, for example — Shadel Fischer said that “people behave better, they slow down, they put their phones down, and they buckle up.”
She continued: “They do things they're supposed to do. But we also know that we can't put an officer on every road, so we're always looking at technology that can help.”
Acusensus' technology can also be used to identify “hot spots,” helping determine where officials may need to improve enforcement, make changes to infrastructure or adopt new legislation.