The Department of Industrial Technology, Ministry of Economic Affairs (DOIT, MOEA) announces the development of the world’s first “smart bus AI inner wheel radius difference auto-braking technology,” an MOEA-funded project with the Institute of Information Industry (III).
This breakthrough smart bus auto-braking technology aims to reduce accidents and increase pedestrian safety. The system uses AI image recognition and multi-sensor devices to effectively assist bus drivers through the detection of blind spots and radius difference between inner wheels, enabling active warnings and automatic braking within 0.6 seconds. Soon, integration with smart electronic license plate solutions can facilitate safer traffic environments in Taiwan.
The “Smart Bus AI Active Safety and Smart Electronic License Plate Cooperation Memorandum” was signed by the Taoyuan City Government and Leon Energy Co., Ltd., on March 22. The signing ceremony took place at the Taoyuan City Cultural Bureau, with the actual vehicle on display.
According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Transportation, an average of 1,500 large-scale car accidents occur each year. Of these, driver blind spots and radius difference in the inner wheel were named as major causes that resulted in high mortality rates.
To reduce the occurrence of traffic accidents, the DOIT (MOEA) funded the III technology project in partnership with Leon Energy Co, Ltd., and the Taoyuan City Government. Through the development and promotion of “Smart Bus AI Active Safety Systems” and “Smart Electronic License Plate” applications, integration and growth of the domestic industry and local economy created a win-win situation for all parties involved.
According to Lin Desheng, Deputy Director for DOIT (MOEA), the cooperation among central and local government agencies, industry, and academic research units has laid the grounds for sustained development of highly precise, stable and safe smart transportation solutions. The fusion of 5G, artificial intelligence, big data, Internet of Things and other technologies has accelerated and diversified industry applications for AI active safety and smart electronic license plates for large vehicles, promoted industrial upgrading, and expanded the local industry’s reach overseas.
Taoyuan City Mayor Cheng Wencan stated that the installation of AI active safety systems on public buses is on the top of their priority list to greatly improve traffic and pedestrian safety. Each bus will have five cameras actively monitoring both sides of the vehicle with automatic braking activation when danger is detected. The data collected from these use cases can be used to further improve system functions and the use of this technology in other fields in the near future.
Taoyuan has also taken the lead in implementing a smart electronic license plate project that used RFID to effectively collect accurate vehicle and related traffic information. The city’s growing technological competency in license plate detection and recognition can be leveraged for electronic toll collection, vehicle identification and stolen vehicle tracking in the future, positioning Taoyuan as a smart city model for future projects.
III Chief Executive Officer Zhuo Zhenghong said that this DOIT-supported project specifically addressed the lack of smart transportation solutions that work well in mixed-traffic scenarios (composed of cars, trucks, bicycles, etc.). The combination of artificial intelligence, deep learning with III’s vehicle flow and street view driving image training database platform (Formosa/Sardina dataset) has led to further advancements in autonomous driving perception sensing and smart transportation solutions and expanded the use of local driving safety applications to large vehicles (trucks/container trucks) as well. This further strengthened Taiwan’s global industry competitiveness index and expansion beyond the niche market.
This memorandum of understanding serves as a good example of how different ministries and local government agencies can cooperate to significantly advance technology and industry growth. In the future, we will continue to use these technology use cases to push forward developments in the automotive electronics and advanced driving assistance system (ADAS) industries. Ongoing digital transformation will promote field applications of Taiwan’s diverse solutions for large-scale vehicle AI active safety and smart electronic license plates, along with the growth of the local autonomous vehicle industry, boosting Taiwan’s technology expertise in the global arena.
