Driving up road safety with AI
Greville Coe, managing director at Radius Telematics, explains how AI-powered technology can help avoid vulnerable road user fatalities
The theme for Road Safety Week 2022, which kicked off on 14 November, is ‘Safe Roads For All’, bringing together communities and professionals to “shout out for everyone’s right to make safe and healthy journeys on safe roads.”
The campaign aims to raise awareness of the government’s key focuses for road safety, including safe roads, safe vehicles and speeds to keep everybody safe on the roads, no matter who they are, or how they travel.
With this in mind, it’s apt to take a closer look at the Department of Transport’s recent road casualties report, published on 29 September, that looks more closely at the risk different road users present to others – in particular the risks that ‘vulnerable road users’ face and what can be done to combat these risks.
The vulnerable groups at risk
Vulnerable road users are considered to be pedestrians, pedal cyclists and motorcyclists, and by grouping these road users together it offers a different perspective on the data because, according to the report, “together vulnerable users accounted for half (50 per cent) of fatalities and had the highest user casualty rates”. This is compared to car occupants that “accounted for 44 per cent of road users killed in Great Britain”.
The data for 2021 shows that in terms of absolute counts, car occupants (including car drivers and car passengers) were the road user group with the greatest number of fatalities (44 per cent of total fatalities in 2021). However, this is unsurprising as cars account for the majority of the traffic on Britain’s roads.
Grouped together, the ‘vulnerable road users’ accounted for half of fatalities in 2021, with the individual breakdowns as follows: pedestrians 23 per cent, motorcyclists 20 per cent and pedal cyclists seven per cent.
Other key findings from the report: cars were the vehicle type most often involved in fatal collisions where other road users were killed, followed by heavy goods vehicles (HGVs). Per passenger mile, HGVs had the highest rate of other road user fatalities, followed by motorcyclists, whereas pedal cyclists and pedestrians presented lower risks of fatality to other road users in collisions.
The role AI technology can play to reduce risks
So, what can we take from this data that could be used to try to improve road safety and bring that fatalities number down for vulnerable road users? Could the answer lie in AI technology?
VUE, a Radius business, seems to think so. The video telematics specialists recently introduced Pedestrian AI to its roster of risk management solutions – intelligent AI cameras that detect pedestrians and cyclists and alert the driver in-cab when they are in areas of risk.
The high-definition images help drivers manoeuvre with more awareness and avoid incidents in busy urban areas, or even on construction sites.
“Commercial vehicles such as HGVs and buses have huge areas surrounding them with little to no visibility”, says Glen Mullins, managing director of VUE. “Pedestrian AI intelligently detects pedestrians or cyclists surrounding the sides and rear of a vehicle”.
The AI technology helps to significantly reduce driving accidents caused by blind spots, to detect when vulnerable users are in areas of risk. So how does it work in practice?
“The cameras provide a real-time visual and audio alarm in cab to alert drivers to potential dangers”, says Glen Mullins. “The high definition image helps drivers to manoeuvre with more awareness and avoid incidents.”
It’s worth noting that the AI technology only picks up humans (and those other vulnerable road users), not static objects.
“In light of the government’s recent road casualties report when vulnerable road users account for more than half of all fatalities, we think this AI technology couldn’t have come at a better time”, says Glen Mullins.
“We’re just happy that we can do our bit to help improve safety for everybody on our roads.”
