CHENNAI: Dr S Suresh Kumar, associate professor at SSN Institutions, along with his Mechanical Engineering students, Vishal B and Neil Ashwin Raj, designed an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered solution that allows passengers to escape from their automobiles in the event of a car meeting with an accident and falling into the water. The project has been funded by Valeo — an automotive supplier and was initiated in the year 2017.
According to Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, a whopping 1.47 lakh people died in road accidents in 2017. In a significant number of cases, these accidents result in death by drowning when the vehicle tumbles off a dam or canal.
To tackle the issue, the SSN team has invented a mechanism which when fitted into an automobile can detect when a car is drowning, in what orientation it is drowning and in response activate the roof of the car to open to allow the passengers to escape. The invention is adaptable to both heavy-duty and light-duty vehicles.