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Good practice Imported

Tūī — Auckland Transport's AI New Zealand Sign Language Avatar for Transit Alerts

New Zealand · Auckland · See the New Zealand profile · See the Auckland profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 83% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Auckland Transport and Kara Technologies are piloting Tūī, an AI avatar assembling motion-captured NZSL signs into real-time video translations of Western Line train-disruption alerts. It reaches ~24,500 NZSL users nationally; the 3-month pilot has no outcome data yet.

24500 people
NZSL users reached nationally
4500 people
Deaf New Zealanders for whom NZSL is a first language
10000 signs
Individual signs motion-captured to train the system (development phase)

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Auckland Transport, with Kara Technologies and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Foundation
Period
June 2026 – September 2026 (pilot)
Keywords
public transport, disability inclusion, accessibility, sign language AI, assistive technology

Context

Auckland Transport, New Zealand's largest city transport authority, is piloting an AI-generated New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) avatar called Tūī inside its AT Mobile app, developed with start-up Kara Technologies and the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Foundation.

Objectives

The pilot aims to deliver real-time NZSL translations of train-disruption alerts for the Deaf community, using an AI system that assembles signs into new sentences rather than replaying fixed recordings.

Activities

Kara Technologies motion-captured more than 10,000 individual signs from Deaf NZSL experts to train the Kara Auto Translate system, with consultation rounds held in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and specific work to include Māori Deaf (Turi Māori) signs. The three-month pilot, launched mid-June 2026, covers Western Line train alerts only.

Conclusions

Feedback closes 1 September 2026, and Auckland Transport will review results before deciding on any expansion beyond the single line; no accuracy, comprehension or satisfaction data has been published yet, and the tool is explicitly meant to complement rather than replace human interpreters.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Short (< 1 year)
Staffing & skills
Auckland Transport, Kara Technologies (start-up vendor), Deaf and Hard of Hearing Foundation

Conditions for success

  • Motion-capture sign library built from Deaf NZSL experts
  • Consultation rounds in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch
  • Deliberate inclusion of Māori Deaf (Turi Māori) signs and concepts

Common failure modes

  • No accuracy, comprehension or satisfaction data published yet
  • Explicitly not intended to replace human interpreters in live or high-stakes settings
  • Scope currently limited to a single train line

Where it fits

Governance type
statutory regional transport authority
Scale
city/regional (single train line pilot)
Income level
high

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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