Dr Adnan Abu-Dayya: QMIC’s executive director.
By Joseph Varghese
Staff Reporter
The Qatar Mobility Innovations Centre (QMIC) is set to launch a smart traffic solution that will reduce the time to reach an accident scene.
“Named ‘e-call system’ it notifies the authorities automatically when an accident take place. It also notifies the location and the number of people in the vehicle,” Dr Adnan Abu-Dayya, executive director of QMIC, told Gulf Times yesterday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the ongoing 24th International Traffic Medicine Association Congress, he noted that QMIC had five to six components of a digital innovation strategy for road safety which would help reduce accidents and improve road safety.
“The e-call system or the emergency response system is being adopted in Europe and other parts of the world. All cars in Europe must implement this system by 2018.”
Dr Abu-Dayya explained that the QMIC was proposing a national system similar to this.”When a crash happens, the authorities get automatic information about the location as well as the victims in the car. This allows the authorities to dispatch the right personnel at the earliest.”
He said: “This allows a seamless response to an emergency situation. If the time to reach the accident area is reduced, the fatalities can be reduced to a great extent.
“If there is a national initiative with all the parties involved, it can be launched in 2017 or early 2018 at least at the pilot level and it can be fully implemented by the end of 2018. This involves some technology to be fitted inside the car.”
Dr Abu -Dayya observed that QMIC’s road safety platform, Salamtek, could reduce the phone usage while driving. “This is a solution for large enterprises that gives the ability for the organisations to mange remotely the phone usage of the drivers. Through this solution, the drivers will not be able to use phones while they are driving.”
The official highlighted that speeding was one of the major problems that created accidents which warranted the monitoring of the driver performance.
“We have a complete system that allows government authorities to seamlessly monitor driver behaviour and reduce speeding. For example, our engagement with Qatar Rail vehicles has resulted in reduction of 60% speeding accidents. Another organisation has said that 100% of the traffic violations have been stopped.”
Dr Abu-Dayya pointed out that the organisation’s Connected Vehicle Platform could reduce accidents by 80%. “This can prevent accidents from the beginning. We are working on it on an experimental basis by 2018 and expect to implement it by early 2019. It requires a national effort. We need an echo system with the ministries, regulation authorities and other organisations to implement it fully.”
The official said that the Masarek platform of QMIC enabled to monitor the traffic situation on roads. “This gives information on the road environment. It provides timely information, timely access to roads and timely traffic information. This will help the motorists to avoid places of congestion and thereby accidents can be reduced.”
Through its offices at the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), QMIC is working closely with key national partners and stakeholders to realise a market-focused innovations ecosystem in Qatar. Page 32
