Bangladesh govt. moves to launch `Safe Drive’ app to avert accident

CNI Desk: The government in collaboration with a private sector automotive maintenance startup, Zantrik, has developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based app `Safe Drive’ to avert accident on the roads.

Leveraging ICT project of Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) under ICT Division has aided Zantrik to develop the app which can monitor a driver’s real time driving behavior, said a press release.

The LICT project engaged National University of Singapore (NUS) as a knowledge partner of this program to ensure quality of the AI -based ‘Safe Drive’ app developed by Zantrik.

 

“The government has been encouraging private sector to come up with frontier tech based-startup to address various problems that would benefit the people and the country,” said ICT Senior Secretary N M Zeaul Alam.

He said developing AI-based Safe Drive app and its smooth functioning will be a milestone development in the road communication sector at a time when the government is desperately trying to reduce road accident.

According to Zantrik the app will also be able to observe a driver’s body language, trajectory and build profile which can be used to identify improvement suggestions and these data can also be analyzed and used by research organizations, corporate, insurance and ride sharing companies, vehicle manufacturers or even government.

Initially the solution is developed and deployed as a Smartphone app mainly for individual vehicle owners, but for commercial use, a hardware based version will also be developed in which case a device will be installed within the vehicles which would perform the same action, it said.

LICT Project Director Md Rezaul Karim said road accident is a big concern not only for Bangladesh, but also throughout the world. The AI-based `Safe Drive’ app will reduce accidents on the roads to some extent, he said adding the app developer Zantrik was selected through a competitive bidding process.

Policy Adviser of LICT Project Sami Ahmed said the government has been making a partnership with the private sector for bringing many tech-based innovative solutions and LICT project alone with private concern has been developing AI-powered 10 prototypes for the betterment of the people.

 

There are reports that every year road accidents kill over 5000 people in Bangladesh and one of the biggest reasons for these accidents is falling asleep while driving, especially in the longer routes, he said.

According to Zantrik, the beta version of the Smartphone app is already available at Google play, and it’s ready to be used by anyone driving a vehicle, anywhere in the world. In later stages, more features will be added to the app to make it more usable. The same app will be released at App Store in upcoming months.