IoT and AI can solve traffic congestion in Nairobi

Traffic index report released by numbeo.com in 2017 revealed that on average, Nairobians spend 62.44 minutes in traffic every day, making Nairobi the world’s second worst city on traffic congestion after Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) in India. This translates to a loss of about Ksh 2 billion every year.

Speaking during the IoT and AI summit in Nairobi, Kenya Michael Needham who is the Solutions Architect for Amazon Web Services said trafficLink, a technology that would help ease this menace is available.

“TrafficLink solves 10 times more traffic problems by giving priority to the vehicles that need it most while laying the foundation for a smart city. It connects autonomous vehicles and readily prioritizes right of way for emergency vehicles,” said Needham

He further said that major applications of AI and IoT in urban context included public safety and public health as well as the environment and quality of life. Around energy management he mentioned the Enel technology, that uses IoT in energy management by building green grass-enabled smart gateways for the home and industrial gateways allows them to process and act on large volumes of data with sub-millisecond latency.

Needham also pointed out healthcare as a beneficiary of IoT technologies, citing Philips Healthcare that runs its HealthSuite digital platform, analyses it and stores 15 PB of patient data gathered from 390 million imaging studies, medical records, and patient inputs to provide healthcare providers with actionable data, which they use to directly impact patient care.

IoT strategies empower customers with the intelligence needed to build new services and business models, that will improve products and services over time. These improvements will improve the quality of life and enhance valuable customer experience and relationship.