Transportation system uses AI to catch drivers blocking bus lanes: NPR

KENILWORTH, N.J. — If you’re the type of driver who parks in a bus lane to run errands, you might want to think twice.

The nation’s largest transit system is using AI-powered cameras to keep illegally parked cars out of bus lanes.

The company behind these cameras is a startup called Hayden AI, and they offered to demonstrate how the cameras actually work on the street near this suburban New Jersey office.

“What you’re seeing on the screen right now is that as you’re driving down the road, the system detects different objects and It means that we are identifying.” .

The camera is mounted inside the windshield and can capture everything happening in front of the bus. Terito said the system analyzes these images to determine if it’s seeing a vehicle and whether it’s stopped somewhere it shouldn’t be.

In just three years, Hayden AI has launched services with transit agencies in New York, Washington DC, Oakland, California, and Los Angeles. The company is rolling out pilot programs in Seattle and Denver, and is in talks with other cities, including Philadelphia and Chicago.

Camera systems use AI to help transit authorities catch and fine drivers who illegally block bus lanes or bus stops. But Terito says that’s not the end goal.

“If you look at the reason for the enforcement, it’s not really about tickets. It’s about changing the behavior of drivers,” Terito said in an interview. “And what we’re seeing is a decline in the number of repeat offenders.”

Although there is some evidence that these camera systems help make buses faster, their introduction has resulted in some speed restrictions.

“It’s working beautifully,” Richard Davey, former president of the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority, said in an interview last year. “It’s about changing behavior, and that’s what we want. And it makes buses go faster.”

The MTA operates subways and buses in New York City, and its fleet transports more than 2 million buses each day. And Davey said passengers are complaining that the buses are moving slowly.

“We ask our customers what is stopping them from using our services, what is frustrating them,” Davey said.

“Our bus customers tell us that their three biggest issues are bus reliability, wait times and traffic,” he said. “So some drivers may be unhappy that we’re doing this, but I can assure you that there are two million bus passengers who are happy. ”

Transit advocates say slow service is a big reason fewer people ride buses in the United States than in other countries. The MTA says buses are 5 percent faster and crashes are 20 percent lower on routes using cameras. So the agency moved earlier this year to expand the program to 20 new bus routes and more than 1,000 buses this year.

But that expansion didn’t go as planned, as hundreds of drivers received incorrect tickets.

“At first I wasn’t too worried, because I knew I was parking in a legal place,” said George Han, who lives on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Han said he was careful to only park in legal places, so he was surprised when the tickets started arriving in the mail – as many as three a day – and they continued to arrive. .

“I think there’s at most a dozen, definitely more than a dozen,” Han said, adding that the total cost was a few hundred dollars.

Mr. Han knew that these tickets were issued by mistake. At first he tried to fight them in court. But it didn’t work out very well. So Han went public, and local television station WNBC picked up the story. After that, Mr. Han was finally flooded with letters apologizing for the tickets.

The MTA announced that approximately 800 tickets were issued in error due to a “programming error” by Hayden AI. Additionally, the MTA announced that approximately 3,000 tickets were issued in error during the 60-day alert period for bus lane enforcement zones.

“Typically, a 60-day warning period serves as a clean-up phase to identify and correct such deficiencies,” MTA spokesman Eugene Resnick said in a statement. “All violations incorrectly issued during the warning period have been voided or are becoming void. Fees paid for tickets incorrectly issued will be refunded.”

Hayden AI says these programming errors have been fixed.

“Anytime there’s a big program, there’s going to be bumps along the road,” said Charlie Tellito of Hayden. New York’s problem “had nothing to do with AI or technology. It was actually a configuration issue.”

There will be an additional level of human review, with New York City Transit officials reviewing each video of the alleged violation before deciding whether to issue a ticket.

The DOT declined to comment on why human judges did not spot hundreds of incorrect tickets for legally parked cars.

George Han said he supports the program’s goal of keeping bus lanes open. Still, he says the incident raises even bigger questions about AI. Dermatologist Han said there is a lot of debate in the medical community about how and when to use AI, and a healthy amount of skepticism.

“In the medical world, we’re trained to be a little bit pessimistic about new technology before we really think it’s ready because we don’t want to harm patients,” Han said. said. “Perhaps you might argue, yes, the stakes are lower. This is a parking ticket. Everything worked out fine in the end. But, you know, our city is We’re spending money. There should be some accountability for these programs.” ”