How EaseMyTrip's Prashant Pitti plans to fix Bengaluru's traffic woes
What's the story
Prashant Pitti, the co-founder of travel aggregator platform EaseMyTrip, has pledged ₹1 crore to tackle Bengaluru's notorious traffic congestion. The tech entrepreneur announced his plan in a LinkedIn post, where he highlighted his own struggle with the city's traffic. Pitti was stuck for over two hours on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) late Saturday night, spending 100 minutes at one particular choke-point without any signal or police presence.
Proposal
Google Maps, AI to be used
Pitti's solution to the city's traffic woes is a tech-driven one. He proposed using Google Maps's new "Road Management Insight" tool, which provides city-level traffic data in BigQuery format. The plan involves using satellite imagery and AI to identify the choke-points and their exact timings across Bengaluru. The EaseMyTrip co-founder also said he would fund the hiring of one to two senior ML/AI engineers for this project.
Collaboration call
BTP or BBMP's feeds necessary
Pitti's project hinges on Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) or Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) opening their raw feeds or API access. He has called for public support in this initiative, asking people to tag anyone they know in the BBMP or the Traffic Commissioner's office.
Public support
Many AI/ML professionals have offered help
The public response to Pitti's post has been overwhelmingly positive, with many users showing interest in joining the initiative. Several AI/ML professionals have offered their time and expertise for this traffic decongestion project. "Hey Prashant, interested in contributing," one user wrote, while another said, "Hi Prashant. We have done some work on this already. Happy to connect."