News
Brains Behind Artificial Intelligence Bring Smart Routing to School Transportation
WRITTEN BY JULIE METEA SPECIAL REPORT
Olli is the first self- driving vehicle to integrate the advanced cognitive computing capabilities of IBM Watson. The 12-passenger electric vehicle analyzes and learns from high volumes of transportation data and enables interactions between the vehicle and passengers. It’s an example of disruptive technology student transporoters are seeing with real-time route directions.
A
rtificial intelligence, or AI, in the automotive industry is transforming the market in different ways. Tech- nologies, like those powering driverless autonomous vehicles in fleets around the U.S., have entered early
stages of production and commercialization. Other AI applications, specifically created to transport students,
are readily available from niche technology companies and entre- preneurial start-ups. Te issue: Adoption among school districts and bus operators
has yet to peak.
WHAT AI CAN DO FOR BUSING AI machines can be made to view, learn, reason and self-correct, like a human. Technologists have spawned in-vehicle solutions such as pedes- trian alerts, automatic breaking, collision avoidance and intelligent cruise controls. More far-reaching AI technologies, such as re- al-time routing, have come together through big data computation using advanced algorithms and vehicles connected through the Internet of Tings (IoT).
34 School Transportation News • SEPTEMBER 2017
Tese applications—combined with increasing quality of source map data, road condition data, sensors and vehicle telemetry—al- low automation to create most if not all of a district’s route plan. “Te upcoming phase of real-time routing promises a daily
reconstruction of route plans, based on a district’s need, student attendance, and the availability of vehicles, drivers and aids,” said John Lavazzo, software development director at Tyler Technologies. “Technology solutions, already available and on the horizon, could even predict when buses will break down, and perhaps, even which drivers will call off on any given day.”
STN SURVEY GAUGES AI ADOPTION While real-time routing has become one of the school trans-
portation industry’s first AI applications, there’s still a stark contrast to the decades-old paradigm of modeling a route plan, which is still in use today. A majority of respondents to School Transportation News’ survey this month indicated that they still manually configure bus routes and provide directions to drivers via radios, cell phones or paper. While 80 percent of respondents said they are interested in adding real-time
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