Transportation is at the heart of every city. Transit is the city's circulatory system that supplies the necessary resources for the city to function. However, many megacities worldwide are experiencing a clog in the system. The average commute in the U.S. is estimated to take around 27 minutes. Back and forth, that would be nearly an hour. For one of America’s megacities, New York, the average round-trip commute can take around a staggering 79.6 minutes.
Transportation problems are a common hindrance to a city's progress, and they're one of the many problems that innovators like Prasanth Sasidharan aim to tackle. Prasanth's expertise in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and engineering has already been adopted by large transportation companies in Abu Dhabi for compliance to city traffic authority KPI’s, fleet management including vehicle maintenance and shows how other megacities can deal with their transportation problems. Furthermore, his expertise in building integrated smart city technologies can help the world envision the future of transportation with AI at its forefront.
Traffic And Its Cost in Megacities
Traffic can cost megacities billions of dollars annually. In a city like Delhi, which produces $370 billion in GDP annually, about 12% of that gets used to deal with the city’s immense traffic issues. Commuters in Delhi spend about two hours on the road on their commute daily.
Traffic doesn't sprout from one singular problem in the city. It is a product of multiple issues that pile up over time. These factors include infrastructural problems, inadequate public transportation options, poor policy-making, etc. Fortunately, many experts believe traffic can be solved or managed with the right technology. AI is at the forefront of this change, and a pioneer in the field is Prasanth Sasidharan.
AI's Influence on Transportation
Saying that Prasanth is an expert in AI-based technologies is an understatement. He has been in the industry for 17 years, designing, consulting, and even selling AI-based products. Prasanth started his humble beginnings in electronics and telecommunications engineering, which eventually helped him pave the way for his AI projects. More specifically, Prasanth specializes in AI solutions for transportation and building smart cities. As an expert in the field, Prasanth’s purpose is "getting to design a community or city which improves people's lives by making buildings or facilities safer, healthier, and smarter." This purpose pushed Prasanth to start his tech startup, Ashraya.
At his startup (Ashraya) Prasanth built an AI platform for a large transportation group in Abu Dhabi. The platform enables fleet management companies to monitor KPIs related to emission control regulations and also enables predictive vehicle maintenance. When such digital platforms are rigorously adopted by transportation companies this helps companies with large fleets to not only comply with city emission requirements but also in the early maintenance of vehicles. All this eventually contributes to improvement of city wide transportation management and pollution control as the digital platform developed at Ashraya is built on open standards to interface data at a larger scale.. Another key incentive for transportation companies to adopt such platforms is to enhance its business profitability, as there are various vendors registered with the digital platform who provide add-on services such as replacement of vehicle accessories including fitment at best rates. The platform is also integrated with in vehicle wayfinding applications which provides shortest directions to authorized maintenance centers in cities or for electric vehicle fleets to the nearest charging stations. In the case of a transportation company contracted with Ashraya, the digital platform also helps their car rental business division by making the car rental booking process more accessible to customers. For instance, customers can book a rental car while their vehicles are in service centers. This process helps increase the order intake for their car rental business within the city. All the car rental vehicle fleets are also managed using the digital platform in full compliance to cities traffic authority guidelines.
Startups such as Ashraya are an exciting preview of what AI can do for megacities, especially when it comes to managing pollution from transportation which are faced by growing urban cities. AI's capability to manage transport fleets in real-time and even redirect them within the city is invaluable for improving transportation bottlenecks in growing urban cities.
Imagine having an AI platform that manages transport fleets including electric vehicles at a grand scale with data integration capabilities to city authority. Such a technology leaves little room for human error, which means better compliance to authority requirements, lower pollution and reduced vehicular congestion. All of these contribute towards transforming megacities into future smart cities that are more efficient and sustainable.
Transportation And Smart Cities
Transportation in smart cities will soon be data-driven and managed by AI for efficiency. Many cities worldwide aim to integrate AI platforms like Prasanth’s startup into their logistics and transportation systems. Millions of terabytes of data processed in the blink of an eye can make a huge difference in managing traffic in megacities where vehicles traverse every road at any time.
AI can also contribute to so much more than just managing traffic for cities. One of the most significant transportation woes can also come from sustainability issues. Vehicle emissions are one of the most significant contributors to global warming today. AI platforms like the one developed by Ashraya can check and report dangerous emission levels from vehicles. When AI solutions for transportation are integrated with AI solutions within facilities or buildings they all contribute towards managing various government KPIs for improving safety and sustainability of a smart city.
Integrating AI in smart cities like Abu Dhabi has seen some net positives. Currently, the smart city has one of the lowest traffic congestion among capital cities worldwide. This is a vision that every megacity should strive for. Initiatives from innovators like Prasanth will certainly help governments deal with transportation problems in smart cities.
With AI managing and monitoring the systems that govern transportation, megacities worldwide can ensure their transportation woes are a thing of the past. Prasanth believes the blueprint for a smart city doesn't only rely on AI managing its transportation but also on other facets such as improved safety within communities, sustainable energy management and even governance. Time will tell how innovators like Prasanth can further integrate AI into other infrastructure projects, but his track record has shown that the future is bright for the smart cities he manages.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Khen Ramos
Quelle/Source: msn, 05.04.2024
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