Can Connected Cars predict potholes?
National Road Safety Week, is A.I. the silver bullet for road safety, and making cities safer.
In this edition:
Using connected vehicles to monitor road ridership quality
Will road deaths end with the intro of A.I.?
National Road Safety Week dates for 2022
💡Case Study Highlight
➡️ The TL;DR: Flooding in Lismore caused a massive decline in road ridership quality. Pavepoint quickly mapped the level of damage and compare before and after the floods by using passive road surveys that we get constantly from connected vehicles.
Transport authorities must continually monitor road assets for changes in quality caused by the use of an asset, or by other factors that affect road quality such as weather. Lismore was one of the hardest-hit areas by the NSW floods in March. Potholes and road deterioration was widespread. In the past, we’d measure the impact of this with profilometer surveys. But they require special hardware and deployment - your data depends on when the last time one of those surveys was done.
So, how can connected vehicles help us better monitor road damage?
Connected vehicles have an embedded gyroscope. These passively measure real-time changes in the roll, pitch, and yaw and changes in the z-axis of a vehicle on any road they drive on, all the time.
Our data scientist, Javi, generated these graphs showing changes in road quality and z-axis (basically if your car drops straight down violently into a pothole or damaged section of road) one week before and one week after the Lismore floods:
🚗 Road ride quality declined by HALF
🚗 An increase in negative z-axis values (vehicles dropping downwards into potholes)
🤖 A.I. = No More Crashes?
What’s going on?
The safety benefits of A.I. and Autonomous Vehicles might be overhyped when it comes to traffic reducing fatalities and injuries.
What does this mean?
A.I. has been touted as the next big thing when it comes to road safety and crash prevention, but there’s still a long way to go in its applications. Despite a lot of advances, A.I. currently being deployed globally, including in Australia, are hardware-based.
Acusensus’ Heads-Up solution - a solution being used in Australia, designed to provide anytime enforcement target behaviour change in distracted driving, speeding, and other illegal behaviour - still relies on cameras and photo software.
Some industry experts believe the prevalence of self-driving cars is overhyped. But there are many cars within Australia that already have Level 1 and Level 2 automation. Some vehicles at Level 3 automation are currently being trialled. In the US, there were almost 1,500 self-driving vehicles already on the road, way back in 2018.
Other questions emerge: do we punish drivers with enforcement measures that don’t guarantee future compliance? Should we be looking at rewarding good drivers? Or do we need to review the way our road infrastructure has been designed and how that might be influencing behaviours?
Why should I care?
135 Million people are killed and 50 million injured in road accidents globally every year. In Australia, we have around 1,200 deaths and 35,000 injuries per year.
A.I. and autonomous vehicles are becoming a larger part of Vision Zero and private car fleets
Raises questions about whether punishment is the correct solution to long-term reductions in risky driving behaviours
Read the full article by the NY Times
🚦National Road Safety Week 15 - 22nd May
What’s going on?
The Safer Australian Roads and Highways (SARAH) are organising the National Road Safety Week 2022 from 15th May to 22nd May with road safety organisations and the Australian Government.
What does this mean?
This is an annual initiative dedicated to those who have lost their lives or been injured in Australia due to unsafe roads and driving. The week highlights the impact of road trauma and campaigns to reduce the number of road crashes. Australians can support the SARAH by purchasing and displaying a yellow ribbon, it is also a great time for road users to reflect on how they can actively protect themselves and their passengers.
Why should I care?
Car accidents are one of the most common leading causes of death among Australians aged between 1 and 24
64% of surveyed Australians 18+ with a driver’s licence have been involved in at least one car accident
45,540 Australians have already pledged to drive safer. Make your pledge here on NRSW’s website.
🎙When Gender and Urban Design Collide
How does gender play a role in our experience of shared public spaces and mobility? We asked Susie Kahlich and Rithika Punj, the founders of Pretty Deadly Self-Defence - an organisation looking to reshape the way we teach women how to protect themselves and reclaim their space in urban environments.
What will you learn:
How gender affects mobility decisions
What can we change to make public spaces safer for everyone?
Violence vs Microaggressions and why the difference is so important
Got feedback on how we can improve ours? Chuck Janis an email at janis@compassiot.com.au on how we can do better
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Compass IoT Team