iRAP presented at the launch of the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety and the UN Envoy on Technology and the International Telecommunications Union’s new “AI for Road Safety” initiative on 6 October.

The new global initiative will focus on the use of data, AI and digital technologies for enhancing the Safe Systems approach to road safety with a specific focus on positive impact for low- and middle- income countries.

In collaboration with the 7th meeting of the Focus Group on Autonomous and Assisted Driving (FG AI4AD) and in partnership with the AI for Good Summit, the webinar explored how advances in AI technologies may be used to enhance road safety for all road users, including safer roads, vehicles, post-crash response and regulatory frameworks.

The webinar was free and open to any individual from an UN member country who is interested in contributing to the work, including private sector, academia, governments and other institutions.

Download the event agenda here. Topics focussed on:

• Role of AI on road safety data and regulatory frameworks
• Role of AI on safer vehicles, including connected, cooperative and automated vehicles
• Role of AI on road infrastructure
• Role of AI on post-crash response

iRAP CEO Rob McInerney presented on AiRAP and the automated and intelligent collection of road attribute data aligned to iRAP Star Ratings, putting road infrastructure data at the fingertips of road authorities, policy-makers, investors and road users worldwide.

AiRAP aims to capture the advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, vision systems, LIDAR, telematics and other data sources to deliver critical information on road safety, crash performance and investment prioritisation for all road users. Meeting the common global standard, AiRAP has the potential to reduce the time and effort required to undertake road safety assessments, reduce costs and improve accuracy to support the social and economic business case for safer roads and create the scale of change needed to save millions of lives.

The Launch occurred one day prior to the 2021 Innovation Workshop co-hosted by iRAP with the Regional Road Safety Observatories. The free global event to be held on 7 and 14 October 2021, will bring together road safety, big data and AI experts to shine a light on “Data Driven Innovation to Save Lives”. All are invited to attend.

Recent iRAP announcements relating to AI for Road Safety and the AiRAP Initiative include:

Australian news:

• Main Roads Western Australia and Anditi break ground in AiRAP coding of 2,000km with application for state network.
• New South Wales’ iMOVE Project to deliver 20,000km of AiRAP road attribute data for the state road network
• Anditi AiRAP project receives funding boost as part of an AUD$8.4 million Entrepreneurs’ Programme for Australian Innovators to bring revolutionary products to market.

USA news:

• US AiRAP pilot announced to leverage AI to enhance road safety analysis in US networks

For more information:

• Download the event recordings here and on the AI for Good Youtube Channel here.
• On the AI for Road Safety Launch – https://aiforgood.itu.int/event/ai-for-road-safety/
• On the AiRAP Initiative – https://irap.org/project/ai-rap/
• On the Innovation Workshop and to register – https://irap.org/2021/08/registration-open-2021-innovation-workshop-with-regional-road-safety-observatories-data-driven-innovation-to-save-lives/