AI Tech Trial Launches at London Underground Stations
An artificial intelligence trial is being rolled out at some London stations to detect people on tracks. Whether you welcome the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology or are against it, it has crept into our daily lives.
Now TfL is deploying AI cameras to help prevent passenger incidents on the Tube network.
AI-based technology to boost passenger safety has been previously tested on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) network and at Willesden Green Underground station.
TfL said it is ‘prioritising work’ to test the technology on the London Underground.
The technology will use AI to spot objects on the rails, including people who have fallen or jumped on tracks, but it will ignore the usual movement of trains.
Station staff will then be alerted to the incident to help prevent a tragedy.
The technology is already being tested on the DLR at Custom House station. DLR’s operator Keolis Amey Docklands has already trialled the AI solution called CCTV AI trial.
It uses security cameras and artificial intelligence to ‘detect and identify objects on the tracks without mistaking them for train movements,’ Keolis Amey says.
Meanwhile, cameras, sensors and AI is used to prevent issues with overhead tram lines in Manchester and Lyon.
Arnaud Julien, the chief innovation officer at Keolis, said that ‘ethics, cybersecurity and personal data protections’ are at the core of the company’s approach to artificial intelligence and generative AI.
It comes after Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, championed London as a hub for AI and technological innovation as he revealed the London growth plan which set to attract innovation and investment in the capital.
On Monday, the Prime Minister launched the ‘AI Opportunities Action Plan,’ a blueprint to help UK from ‘falling behind the advances in Artificial Intelligence made in the USA and China.’
With millions of people travelling on it daily, the Tube sees its fair share of passenger incidents.
Lord Blunkett, a blind Labour peer, slipped while travelling on the District line with his guide dog in October. He described the terrifying moment he fell down the gap at a ‘death trap’ Tube platform, leaving him with injuries to his face and legs.