6:55 am today

Business to offer AI cameras for front of buses

6:55 am today
Bus at junction of Karangahape Road and Howe Street.

A US company is aiming to bring new camera technology to New Zealand buses, to help keep other vehicles out of bus lanes and bus stops. (File photo) Photo: Stuff / Ricky Wilson

A US company that puts AI-enabled cameras on the front of buses to try to stop cars from blocking bus stops has entered the New Zealand market.

Hayden AI has teamed up with Japanese owned NEC New Zealand.

Their aim extends to policing bus and cycle lanes, and double-parking, "to improve road safety in New Zealand and Australia", a company statement said.

NEC already has public transport contracts providing passenger information for buses in Canterbury, and signed a similar one worth up to $16.5m for Wellington last year

Hayden AI claimed its system had sped up buses on monitored routes in New York, where it was introduced in 2022, by five percent.

The system sent footage of any traffic violation to authorised agencies for human review first, it said.

It had put cameras in the windshields of hundreds of buses in the US, and was involved in a pilot in Estonia, industry websites said.

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