TAMPA, Fla — Artificial Intelligence is being talked about a lot lately. It's being used in many different ways in the Tampa Bay area, including traffic control.
The Florida Department of Transportation, Pinellas County, and the City of Tampa all use the same system, which means they are able to collaborate together when it comes to crashes or problems on the roadways.
It's busy work inside the Smart Mobility Division or the City of Tampa's Traffic Signal Nerve Center. There are two full operators on staff and their main job is to monitor traffic incidents on the roadways.
"We utilize several of the tools that we still have at our disposal. That includes the CCTV network, news feeds, the plain old telephone system — people calling and telling us there's an issue," said Brandon Campbell, the City of Tampa Smart Mobility Manager.
But, as their system has gotten bigger, the ability to keep up has become harder.
"It's not really possible for our operators to pay attention to 100 cameras at once," Campbell said.
An emerging tool in the box is the use of artificial intelligence, specifically called Rekor, which is also being used in Pinellas County and across the state with the Florida Department of Transportation.
"About 60% of the incidents we find are incidents that are not reported," said David Desharnais, the President of Rekor. "So, you either have to see it on a camera or wait for 911 calls. Now, 60% of the time, we're able to identify something not called in or not seen on a video screen. That's number one. Number two — being able to respond upwards of 20 minutes faster to an incident."
He said this allows first responders to get to the scene faster, which could potentially save more lives or clear up delays on the roadway before they become a major issue for commuters.
"One of the biggest risks when it comes to incident response is secondary crashes," Campbell said. "As soon as we can make a difference to what's going on with the first incident that happens, it reduces that exposure."
Rekor takes about 20 trillion data points into the system, like camera feeds, roadway sensors, connected vehicles, work zones, and special events, to help operators identify areas of concern.
"What we're looking for is other than what you just see on a video screen, but being able to look at connected vehicles, electric vehicles where you see hard braking, or hard steering or airbag deployment or a stalled vehicle, or a compression of vehicles together, " he said. "It's an indicator to the traffic operators to send somebody out there."
He said the system can also identify any emerging patterns in certain areas, which helps officials spot problem areas that may need to be looked at for improvements in the future.
Campbell would like to see other agencies use the technology.
"I think there are maybe some opportunities moving forward for functional expansion as well, working with some of our law enforcement partners and incident responders and that sort of thing," he said.
Desharnais said the technology will get even better as newer cars with upgraded software and the ability to talking with other cars get on the roadway and replace older cars without that technology.
