Project iRASTE — Telangana's AI Collision-Warning System Cuts Bus Crashes 40%

Launched in July 2022 by the Telangana government with IIIT Hyderabad's INAI research centre, CSIR's Central Road Research Institute and Intel, Project iRASTE (Intelligent Solutions for Road Safety through Technology and Engineering) fitted 200 Telangana State Road Transport Corporation buses on three highway corridors — Hyderabad-Kodad, Hyderabad-Pullur and Hyderabad-Adilabad — with camera-based advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) that warn drivers in real time of forward collisions, lane departures and pedestrians in the road.

Comparing RTC crash statistics from April 2023 to March 2024, the project partners reported that ADAS-equipped buses had 40% fewer accidents than buses without the system operating on the same routes. IIIT Hyderabad's analysis projects that applying the project's full set of recommendations across the state transport fleet could cut road crashes by up to 66% and fatalities by 40%; the project has since been cited in the International Road Federation's 2023 yearbook as a reference case.

The reported figures come from the implementing partners themselves rather than an independent third-party evaluation, and the 200-bus, three-corridor deployment remains a small fraction of Telangana's total bus fleet — the wider 66%/40% projections are modelled estimates of a full-state rollout that has not yet happened.

Read the full analysis: https://theprint.in/india/200-telangana-buses-plying-highways-were-fitted-with-ai-based-alert-devices-accidents-down-40-in-1-yr/2179264/