or the use of artificial intelligence to create a proactive response is available. However, the extent to which AI is integrated into the cameras differs by district wants and needs, budget concerns, and company offerings. For instance, several years ago


Safe Fleet introduced its Predic- tive Stop Arm, which uses radar rather than video to detect on- coming traffic, and to determine the likelihood that a vehicle will illegally pass the school bus. “That’s not actually using video


for its core purpose,” said Justin Malcolm, the company’s director of product management. “How- ever, it’s common to pair it with video and potentially use analyt- ics to capture the moment when the passing happens and to use that video footage or maybe even to have a process to issue a cita- tion around that footage. That’s one place where cameras and analytics are coming together.” Malcolm added another trend is to move away from the use of mirrors and to either augment mirror systems or replace them with video cameras entirely. Last month, Rosco Vision Systems requested an exemption from the FMCSA, regarding rear-vision mirrors. Instead of using FMVSS 111 compliant mirrors, Rosco has requested the use of its Rosco Vision Digital Camera and Mon- itoring System (DCAM) on trucks and school buses. “Rosco Vision Systems is in


development of a DCAM to help continue their legacy of improved vision safety on the school bus,” said Matthew Eckert, director of school bus sales for the company. “The advantages of the DCAM system over mirrors are wider and deeper field of view, smaller blind zones, [and] increase in all weather conditions (most notably


32 School Transportation News • MAY 2022


91% of transportation directors/supervisors say


that their school buses are equipped with interior video cameras. (Out of 120 responses to a recent magazine survey.)


67% of transportation directors/supervisors say


that they randomly spot- check footage on buses to ensure employees are following proper training requirements. (Out of 109 responses.)


16% of transportation directors/supervisors stated


that the video footage can be viewed in real time. (Out of 107 responses.)


53% of districts have dedicated staff watching


footage. (Out of 19 responses.)


When is video footage pulled?


37% Only when there is an incident


26% Other (daily, periodically, during


preventative maintenance)


21% A couple times a month


5% Quarterly


5% Monthly (Out of 19 responses.)


rain). For electric vehicles, where reduction of weight could be an advantage, there will be a reduc- tion of 30 pounds.” Gruban noted that AI allows


districts to be more proactive, without sacrificing manpower, like what is offered by live stream- ing video. “What we’re able to do now with AI technology is have computer algorithms look at the video and look for things of inter- est,” he continued, adding that an ideal application for this technol- ogy would be to target stop-arm violations. He noted that if a daily bus recording was about six hours, AI and GPS filters could cut down the footage to half an hour. The half-hour video would then be filtered video, which is most likely an incident, and the human review is verifying prior to ticket- ing, for example. But that’s not all AI can do.


Though the technology is new, there are tradeoffs with what can be done versus what is allowed to be done in the pupil trans- portation space, especially in terms of working with school bus unions. “We have algorithms that can watch the driver and detect if their eyes close,” Gruban said, noting that adoption of it in the school transportation space is slim to none. “We can detect if the driver is not paying attention. We can detect if the driver is using their cell phone.” Depending on how the district chooses to respond, a real-time notification could be sent to management. Potentially, he said, the AI system could connect to the actual bus and kill the acceler- ator altogether. REI’s Neal noted that the future


of video systems could be able to detect events and behaviors


Continued on pg. 36 ➥


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