Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (TOKYO: 6503) announced today that its ME Innovation Fund has invested in Hayden AI Technologies, Inc., a U.S.-based startup company that provides traffic violation enforcement services using image analysis technology. This is the sixth investment the fund has made to date.
The United States has very strict traffic regulations related to school buses to ensure the safety of children. For example, when a school bus is stopped and either displaying a stop sign or flashing its lights, the vehicles behind it must come to a complete stop. The same requirement applies when a school bus stops in the oncoming lane unless the road has a median strip. Notwithstanding some minor variations between states, the penalties for violations of these rules are severe.
Hayden AI Technologies uses cameras mounted on school buses and other vehicles to detect traffic violations via image analysis. Violations are reported immediately to the relevant authorities, together with the relevant image data. This service contributes to improved urban traffic safety by enabling violations such as parking infringements to be enforced more efficiently. The company also offers a traffic volume forecasting solution that utilizes accumulated image data, which it plans to develop into a business urban traffic optimization platform to pitch to major cities around the U.S.
Mitsubishi Electric and Hayden AI Technologies are taking on the challenge of creating a digital twin. The aim is to solve urban transport problems by collecting image data in real-time to perform highly reproducible simulations, and then predict traffic accidents and changes in traffic conditions that are likely to occur in the real world.
