In this age of digitalization, artificial intelligence is getting more popular across the world. It is a revolution that transforms the transportation industry. Recently, AI has grown as a machine learning platform where techniques are combined with technologies and are used for analyzing a large amount of data developed by the digital world. It makes modes of transportation smarter, cleaner, safer and comfortable. AI is applicable in infrastructure, logistics, public and private transport vehicles and the way it interacts with the users to provide comprehensive service. It also assists to recognize risks, market trends, lessen the emission of greenhouse gas, manage & design transport systems, analyze the behavior of pedestrians and demand for travel.
Transportation is an important sector where AI is applied successfully. Globally, research groups, technology firms, and automotive manufacturers utilize several AI technologies and develop automated vehicles that can be used in commercial and personal transportation. This type of vehicles depend on different sensors like radar, cameras, and GPS on integrating with the software. Various AI technologies combine driving functions that are present in the market. This operation takes place during the automated vehicle testing on restricted routes and critical situations. In every technology, there is the presence of risks and challenges that should be taken into consideration.
Challenges of AI that revolutionize the transportation industry:
- Cost
The biggest limitation behind the growth and development of AI in the transportation industry is the high cost of systems, consisting of software and hardware. This technology is expensive to implement in complex systems that are used for the transportation industry. However, the cost to hire development teams, engineers and employees are the main barriers that the industry has to overcome.
2. Less education and skills
In the last few years, growth has been observed in the demand for AI experts. Less skilled AI experts are considered as the main hurdle to adopt AI in developed regions. However, it is time-consuming to integrate new technologies effectively, specifically those that are complex with large economies and impact on AI.
3. Poor and less-developed infrastructure
Insubstantial and underprivileged countries face different challenges while using AI-based transport applications. Implementation of AI in such rural areas is the biggest problem that the industry undergoes. This occurs mainly due to the lack of infrastructure and failure in maintenance. Smaller countries with less GDP make minimal investments in technology and research. This makes transport industries incapable of utilizing the power of AI.
Advantages of AI in the transportation industry:
- Safety
Safety is the most important concern. This factor is considered for people that work in the transportation and travel industries. However, while providing seamless services, customers and passengers must understand that their belongings are in safe hands.
For almost a decade, technology has been making safety levels easy. The acceptance of AI technologies by different enterprise mobility solutions and businesses makes safety and security their prioritized concern.
2. Efficiency
Energy-efficiency works as the main feature of goods and public transportation as it makes journeys safe and convenient with the integration of technology. Eventually, it benefits as technologies are important to manage the power supplies more effectively.
On integrating different technologies, AI improves the performance of the system. But it is very significant for different systems to use power efficiently for the utilization of new technologies.
3. Pollution
These days, people are focusing more on the environment where different climate changes are observed. However, to secure long-term sustainability it is very important to minimize the use of polluting substances in the industry.
AI plays a major role in deploying and developing innovative and new ways to reduce pollution. Whereas engineers and scientists have different environment-friendly methods to run vehicles and machinery for travel and transportation.
There are several use cases of AI in the transportation industry. Several companies are adopting AI technology for making transportation reliable and seamless.
Take a glance at applications where AI is used:
- Self-Driving Cars
The most ground-breaking applications where innovations come to reality in transportation are self-driving cars. Self-driving cars are also known as autonomous vehicles or driverless cars. AI plays a key role in driverless cars as it provides control, process, and capability of optimization in vehicles.
In autonomous cars, processing and transmission of data is the most important function. Whereas damage to processes shows the major changes in simplifying the operations of autonomous cars. In Tokyo, autonomous taxis have already started providing taxi services. But for maintaining safety, drivers are present in the car where they can handle the worst situation in an emergency. However, technology has the potential to reduce the cost of taxi services that can help increase modes of public transportation in isolated areas.
Various enterprises of mobility solutions work to carry out the pilot projects and attempts to make flawless self-driving cars that maintain passenger’s safety. The use of AI in driverless cars increases mass confidence and customer reliability.
2. Public Passenger Transportation
Several autonomous bus trials have been initiated on a small scale across the world. But, it has prominently started in China, Singapore, and Finland. Inconsistency in city infrastructures, weather patterns, road surfaces, and traffic patterns makes the transportation system non-productive. AI in autonomous buses or trucks results in making on-time delivery of packages and people efficient.
There is the development of ‘Olli’ which is the self-driving electric shuttle. This is developed by American company Local Motors and used for public transportation. However, this company concentrates on manufacturing vehicle designs on a low level with the help of micro-factories. This shuttle performs the functions of transporting passengers to the desired locations, gives suggestions about local sights and more.
3. Traffic Management Solutions
In this fast-growing world, there is the problem of traffic jams in metro cities. AI has the potential to prevent and predict traffic jams. Several engineers work on the integration of AI in traffic management systems that makes transportation seamless and reliable. Because of control, process and optimization capabilities, AI is applied in traffic management systems. This helps improve decision-making systems and modernize the management of traffic and make smarter roads.
Undoubtedly, the ability of AI to predict traffic is beneficial for traffic management systems. This results in identifying environmental and physical conditions that might be the main reason behind congestion and heavy traffic flow.
Conclusion:
In the future, AI can be the best technological invention to make positive changes. It promises to increase efficiency and productivity in different sectors, including transport. Moreover, AI is already making transportation reliable, safe, clean and efficient. Considering the positive changes, there will be a reduction in fatalities and accidents, increase the level of service and lessen operational costs. The integration of AI technologies improves the efficiency of the systems, but, it is very important to use power effectively by different systems and have the potential to use new technologies.
Ritesh Patil is the co-founder of Mobisoft Infotech that helps startups and enterprises in mobile technology. He loves technology, especially mobile technology. He’s an avid blogger and writes on mobile application. He works in a leading android development company with skilled android app developers that has developed innovative mobile applications across various fields such as Finance, Insurance, Health, Entertainment, Productivity, Social Causes, Education, Taxi development and much more and has bagged numerous awards for the same.
