Bengaluru, NFAPost: Drive Smart Drive Safe NGO (D2S) partners with Netradyne, a Bengaluru based technology pioneer in safe driving, to drive the 2nd edition of ‘India Against Road Crash’ (IARC) initiative and generate scientific data on road safety. This feat was possible through live, on-camera monitored women’s car drive covering 3500 km stretch across India.
Dubbed the ‘Safe Speed Challenge’, the five motorists were also put through a stringent ‘safe driving skills’ test with live location and speed tracking.
Netradyne’s Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS), ‘Driveri’, was installed in the cars to alert drivers and generate HD real-time videos on driving incidents during the 3500 km journey from Amritsar to Kanyakumari. These videos were posted to D2S social media platforms to raise public awareness on road safety.
Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and MSME, Mr. Nitin Gadkari and Minister of Defense, Mr. Rajnath Singh flagged off the event as part of the National Road Safety Month in February 2021.
IARC is an industry-wide initiative by D2S under the lead of FICCI & SIAM with the help of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Govt. of India to promote road safety in India. It is also supported by ACMA, FADA, ASDC, NSCI and many like minded organisations.
Commenting on the evolution and vision of IARC, Shri Ramashankar Pandey, founder of D2S says, “we are thrilled to be associated with Netradyne on this noble mission to free India of all avoidable road crashes.”
What started with a call to donate #CroreSteps in 2018 evolved into a human chain during awareness to commitment campaign named #1CroreHaathSaathSaath in 2019. It progressed from Awareness to Commitment to Action during India Against Road Crash in 2020.
It finally culminated in the demonstration and monitoring of Safe Driving during Season 2 of “India Against Road Crash” in 2021 by means of #SafeSpeedChallenge – an on-camera, live car rally monitored via IARC app. Our vision this year was to convince the public that road crash is a scientific topic and not “Bad Luck” as believed widely.
“This was made possible by Netradyne’s scientifically advanced driver behavior analysis data of our women challengers possible through Driver-i’s real-time videos, Forward Collision Warning (FCW) alerts etc. Not only did it assist and alert, it also provided HD videos for social media amplification taking the overall campaign unique reach to 3 million. We are processing data captured from all devices including Driver-i to present to the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on guiding their road safety decisions.”
“For instance, the data will be used to upgrade road infrastructure along the car rally route and also reward good driving behavior through cash prizes to truck drivers and stickers signed by Shri. Gadkari. For the first time you will get Govt. signed appreciation stickers for safe driving instead of challans for Rule Violation. This is an innovative example of positive reinforcement of good Citizen Behavior, which is urgently needed in the absence of adequate enforcement of pan-India scale”, he adds.
According to Durgadutt Nedungadi, VP-Marketing, Netradyne, “Roughly 50 million people are injured in road accidents in India every year. Netradyne’s partnership with D2S and IARC demonstrates the power of AI powered vision-based ADAS technology in inching closer to vision 50/2030 ie; 50% accident reduction on Indian roads by 2030. As was demonstrated during IARC, Driver-i analysed driving journey, road data and alerted drivers in real-time through AI built into the edge-computing device. With just two inward cameras on and two outward looking cameras off, Driver-i recorded and triggered several audio alerts ranging from drowsiness detection to FCW averting major road incidents and accidents for the challengers. It is quite humbling to see how all this data will be used in guiding future policy decisions of the Govt. of India on institutionalizing safe driving practices and road safety culture in India.”
Speaking on her driving behavior, Amritha Arvind one of the Bengaluru based challenger says, “Netradyne alerted me during two to three major incidents during my journey. At one-time it warned me when I was feeling drowsy and I pulled over to rest.
“IARC and Netradyne have opened my eyes to my driving patterns and behavior. Earlier I enjoyed spirited driving but seeing the kind of numbers averaging 415 deaths per day has helped me moderate my high spirited driving behavior.”
