Building AI and Human Capital for Road Safety

TL;DR

This paper explores how AI, specifically Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, can improve road safety in India by combining technical analysis with ethnographic insights into the social context and stakeholder empowerment.

Contribution

It integrates AI deployment analysis with anthropological insights, emphasizing stakeholder empowerment and social context in AI-driven road safety solutions in India.

Findings

AI systems like ADAS can enhance road safety when integrated with local social dynamics.

Bus drivers' perspectives are crucial for effective AI deployment in transport.

Empowering local stakeholders improves AI adoption and safety outcomes.

Abstract

AI is about learning algorithms and huge amounts of data and are drivers of economic growth -- what does this mean for the field of development studies? Can we re-orient to twin AI studies and development theory and practice to generate how development challenges are identified and researched? To do this a good grasp is needed of AI internal mechanisms and outcomes in addressing development issues -- this argument will be developed through a case study of the ADAS [Advanced Driver Assistance System] deployment in India. Over and above discussing the ADAS we bring an anthropological lens to understand the social context that surrounds the system. Focusing on bus drivers, we offer findings from a qualitative and ethnographic study of drivers in a collaborative effort to achieve road safety by deploying AI-driven technology and empowering stakeholders in the transport industry in India especially, bus drivers as critical actors in the city transport network.