In a first such collaborative effort in the nation, top institutes of India will utilise artificial intelligence (AI) in road safety to lessen accidents. The International Institute of Information Technology-Hyderabad (IIIT-H), along with tech giant Intel, CSIR-Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) and NMC (Nagpur Municipal Corporation), among other partners, have started project iRASTE (intelligent Solutions for Road Safety through Technology and Engineering) in Nagpur. On Monday, Nivruti Rai, country head, Intel India and vice-president, Intel Foundry Services, told the media that as a part of this project, the partners would be leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to overcome road accident incidents by nearly 50% in Nagpur city in the coming two years and build a model that can be scaled up and replicated in the entire country. iRASTE will concentrate on three key features -vehicle safety, mobility analysis and road infrastructure safety. Under this project, NMC’s fleet of vehicles will be provided with a collision-avoidance system, a subset of Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS), that can lessen accidents and near misses by up to 60%. Currently, around 30 buses in Nagpur have been fitted with such devices, and it will be scaled up to about 350 in the following days. These sensors will also assist in mapping current accident-prone areas and the likely accident zones in the entire road network, helping road maintenance agencies to intervene at an early stage and go for preventive maintenance. Shekhar C Mande, DG, CSIR, told the media that CSIR-Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) would assist in identifying the accident-prone locations and estimate the drivers’ behaviour before and after the establishment of collision avoidance systems in their vehicles. This project can be emulated in many cities as well. While Intel India will bring its ADAS technology. CRRI will leverage its domain expertise in road engineering and IIIT-Hyderabad will be undertaking AI-based research to address population-scale road safety via its INAI centre for applied AI research. Additionally, Mahindra & Mahindra will conduct road safety public awareness programs and driver training in Nagpur. Image Source Also read: Govt to join hands with private players to reduce road accidents