AI and Robotic Technologies to Eliminate Traffic Accidents

Researchers at Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, are teaming up with automotive perception company Provizio to develop robotic technologies and artificial intelligence tools to end traffic accidents on the world’s roads which result in 1.35 million deaths annually.

Provizio founder and CEO Barry Lunn said the World Health Organisation (WHO)* estimates that annually, more than 1.35 million die in road traffic accidents, with more than 50 million people maimed, and the cost to the global economy is estimated to be just shy of €2 trillion annually.

AI and Robotic Technologies to Eliminate Traffic Accidents

“Preventable human error has a role in more than 90% of road accidents. The numbers have not changed for more than 20 years. Unless we initiate change, this worldwide problem will continue unabated. We started Provizio to solve this problem firstly, and then we will pave a path to safe, sustainable, and ubiquitous autonomy. With the right focus, we believe that robotics and drivers can work together to reduce both road deaths and accidents to zero – 1.35 million to zero drives everything we do,” he said.

Lero researchers Dr. Ciarán Eising and Dr. Pepijn Van de Ven, in association with Provizio, will focus on the fusion of data from onboard cameras and radar sensors to help eliminate traffic accidents for all drivers – human and robotic.

“Every decision to move that an autonomous car makes, based on its sensor inputs, is potentially a life or death one. The time-critical nature of the car’s operation means that only the car can make these decisions safely and reliably.

“A critical challenge to the successful deployment of autonomous vehicles is the difficulty the vehicle has in viewing and understanding the environment in which it must safely operate and understanding its location within that environment,” explains Dr. Eising.

Dr. Van de Ven said they would be working with Provizio to deploy the technology on Provizio test vehicles and make developments commercially available to car manufacturers worldwide.

“Our researchers will spend time with Provizio on the Future Mobility Campus Ireland (FMCI) in Shannon to learn about Provizio’s technology and deploy the technologies developed,” he added.

Provizio founder Barry Lunn said: “We started Provizio to solve the global road death pandemic. For the last 20 years, international regulatory policy has focused on trying to make us better, more responsible drivers. This approach has failed consistently.”

“We are building augmented, guardian angel technology to make us all better and safer drivers. We are using unparalleled ‘beyond-line-of-sight’ sensor technology coupled with artificial intelligence ‘on-the-edge’ to perceive, predict and prevent accidents,” he added.