Detecting drivers who are using phones at the wheel has long been a labor intensive manual task. But now the worlds first automated solutions are already here.
Our partners at Acusensus are featured as one of the key innovators in this space. The article tackles distracted driving from a behaviorial, legal and technological perspectives.
Click here to read the complete article: Danger at the Wheel
Experts are meeting on Friday to solve Victoria’s soaring road death toll, which has reached 137 this year, compared with 88 at the same time in 2018.
Speaking ahead of the summit, the state’s roads safety minister, Jaala Pulford, said a new media campaign will highlight the danger of drivers using mobile phones.“
Mobile phone use in cars is the drink-driving of this generation,” she said. “The research tells us people think just two seconds is not as horrifically hazardous as it is.
“If you’re travelling at 100km/h an hour, for 55 metres it’s equivalent to having a blindfold on.”
Thousands of motorists are being caught using their phones while driving every day and there is a disturbing reason why people think they can get away with it.
Compared to speeding and drink driving, mobile phone distraction is a “major unaddressed source of road trauma”.
Campaigns warning about the dangers of phone use have ramped up in recent years, with the NSW Government even increasing the penalty for using a phone while driving from four demerit points to five.
The lack of a technological solution to this issue may be the reason drivers continue to break this rule so frequently.
Speed cameras and roadside drug and alcohol tests are a deterrent for many drivers, but until now there hasn’t really been technology specifically designed to catch distracted motorists.
Read the full Report in news.com.au:
Ador recently announced an investment in Australian traffic and safety enforcement specialist Acusensus Pty Ltd, taking a majority equity position in the company. Acusensus specialises on the use of radar, cameras and software for unique path breaking innovative solutions to identify and create infringements for driving whilst distracted, such as texting or using an electronic device whilst driving, seat belt usage, and other related traffic safety offences.
The only one way to counter the increasing traffic fatalities around the world is to use intelligent technology
Ravin Mirchandani, Chairman, Ador Powerton shares his thoughts with Traffic Infra Tech magazine about how the road network in India is experiencing palpable growth and in some sectors change is visible almost every day. The Smart City Program has resulted in citizens witnessing the immediate visible impact of assets such as Variable Message Signs (VMS), smart poles and WIFI being rolled out city-wide within weeks.
Ador recently announced an investment in Australian traffic and safety enforcement specialist Acusensus Pty Ltd, taking a majority equity position in the company. Acusensus specialises on the use of radar, cameras and software for unique path breaking innovative solutions to identify and create infringements for driving whilst distracted, such as texting or using an electronic device whilst driving, seat belt usage, and other related traffic safety offences. Alexander JANNINK, Managing Director Acusensus said, "This investment by Ador will help further speed up our R&D cycle and support the pilot projects we are currently working on implementing globally in geographies where distracted driving is a significant source of traffic accidents. We are pleased to partner with Ador who will also support us in our international growth efforts.'
Pictured: Ravin MIRCHANDANI, Chairman Ador Powertron and Alexander JANNINK MD, Acusensus Pty Ltd.
Ravin MIRCHANDANI, Chairman Ador said "Ador is working on a number of different projects within the Traffic and Defence sectors that utilise software to make cameras intelligent for various applications. Our investment in Acusensus will provide a significant IP advantage to not just our traffic and enforcement solutions but also our current pipeline of defence, perimeter & border protection as well as airfield protection projects." The investment agreement was concluded by both companies recently.
The Australian National Road Safety Strategy is based on the Safe System approach to improving road safety. This involves a holistic view of the road transport system and the interactions among roads and roadsides, travel speeds, vehicles and road users.
It is an inclusive approach that caters for all groups using the road system, including drivers, motorcyclists, passengers, pedestrians, cyclists, and commercial and heavy vehicle drivers. Consistent with Ador's long-term road safety vision, it recognises that people will always make mistakes and may have road crashes—but the system should be forgiving and those crashes should not result in death or serious injury.
Highlights
Anirban DHAR and Mriraj KUMAR - Young ADOR leaders who led our projects.
Business leaders will wax lyrical about ‘creativity’ being the most valuable attribute an employee can have. Often, the sad underlying narrative of their message is how this fascinating little trait is frustratingly rare to find within most teams, that companies seldom use ‘creativity’ as a mechanism to promote talent and that ‘creativity’ is impossible to instill in people, – seemingly you are either born with it or not!
At ADOR we don't quite agree with this narrative. In this post about how creativity can be fostered within any team under the right circumstances, In this post, our chairman, Ravin MIRCHANDANI explains how we've fostered a creative environment at ADOR with a real life case study. Link: Read the article
Last week, one of our group companies, - Ador Digatron chose to honour a very special member of the team in a touching and poignant way. The entire company gathered to celebrate the career of one of our longest serving manufacturing shop-floor operators in Pune, India. This was not a retirement ceremony, nor a farewell, – just everyone taking 5 minutes off in the middle of the day to celebrate the career of a genuine human being, who is also a hardworking and cheeky colleague.
Govardhan DABHADE, or ‘Dabhade Sir’ as he is popularly known, joined us 28 years ago and has worked in every shop-floor of every Ador Group company in Pune during that time. The team chose to name the main conference room at the Pune manufacturing plant after him. It is now proudly called the “Govardhan Dabhade Conference Room” – or as I am sure it will soon be known, the “Dhabade Sir Room”.
Govardhan joined us as a gardener in the late 1980s, – back when we had a large rose garden that spanned over three acres at one of our factories. This was during the era when companies indulged in such wonderful luxuries like rose gardens and flower shows. We used to compete in the local Pune Rose show, often winning the annual gold medal competing against submissions even from the botanical gardens.
To live the truth, we also must consciously remind ourselves to just say it as it is, without malice but with clear and positive intent. Respect will follow, so will success, confidence, happiness and the gradual lifting of that terrible tension of not being enough.
Watching Govardhan speak at this low-key ceremony reminded me of how times have changed and how we all now seem to dedicate less time and resources for the more beautiful things. Rather than stopping to smell the real roses, we seem to be doing that vicariously online instead. As I was watching the touching ceremony, the memory of the rose garden seemed to suddenly become a symbol of a time when people and things were far more real.
Govardhan was responsible for many of our Rose Show gold medals due to his uncanny green thumbs. But as time moved on, so did his challenges. The rose gardens vanished with the frenetic activity that came post the liberalisation of the Indian economy in the 1990s and Govardhan chose to move inside the manufacturing plant, working in the equipment assembly shop as a fabricator. He then moved to our power electronics manufacturing shop-floor, where he started earning his own medals – best contributor, most efficient performer, cleanest workspace, highest output, most skilled copper winding professional, the list is endless.
Govardhan is one of those special people who live life with the brutal honesty that so many of us only aspire to. He is the same person in every sphere of his life – what you see is the real person, always. People like Govardhan always seem so content, so calm and happy because they live life by the rules of their own truth. Their own true north! No fake portrayed online persona that they constantly need to live up to, no tensions from not living up to the expectations of others. They are immensely at peace with who they are. I have occasionally come across such special people, some of whom are CEOs, directors, business heads, mad scientists in design teams, Uber taxi drivers and restaurant waiters, chefs, deep sea diving coaches and of course Govardhan. What they share is contentment, calm, clarity and confidence.
At Ador, “Being Brutally Honest” is one of our four core values. The other three are easy to understand and to live daily. But brutal honesty, quite like attaining moksha (achieving your inner calm after finding your true purpose) or finding nirvana (heaven), seems so ephemeral and elusive.
We spend between 70% to 80% of our waking hours at work and half our time back at home is invested in sleep and recovery. So, naturally our day job has an enormous impact on our well-being. The relationships we have with our work colleagues have an important bearing on our happiness as well as our mental, emotional and clinical health. Yet most of us chose to live behind a shield at work, in protection mode unable to be ourselves, resulting in an inability to develop long lasting sustainable and nourishing relationships at work.
The book Radical Candor has a wonderfully succinct description about “bringing your whole self to work”. It is important we find courage to be our real selves at work – embracing our weaknesses and strengths, living life for who we truly are.
I feel fortunate to work for a company that has brutal honesty as a core value, yet also recognises that we are all imperfect beings who are not able to live this 24/7, sometimes failing and other times forgetting. A company that consciously rewards this core value within its teams.
It struck me that this is exactly what Dabhade ‘Sir’ has done all his life and perhaps that is what made this low-key event so special. A room at our workplace was being named after a special individual who had figured out the road to success and happiness, as defined by him.
What a lovely gesture by the team which will also remind us daily that the secret of success, happiness and our wellbeing rests in being brutally honest and living our own truth daily.
Ravin Mirchandani is the Chairman and Director at ADOR
