Author: Shepherd Modisha
22 Apr 2020
Inconvenience, insults and insecurity, that’s what commuters pay for to get off after robot in a taxi. If reckless driving was an Olympic sport, there would gold medals hanging on a rear-view mirror of every taxi in South Africa. Taking a taxi might sound like a very normal thing in any society, but this is a deadly undertaking in the city of Johannesburg, a problem I intend to eliminate.
Project Noord is an ambitious project by my company Shepherd’s Eye. We have been working on it for over 5 years and personally have been working on it for over 15 years. The aim of the project is to make an autonomous minibus taxi and create a true freedom of movement. We currently have sensors and specialised computers in 3000 taxis commuting from Noord Taxi Rank in Johannesburg to every part of the country.
We are inspired by the human eye and the only sensor close enough is a camera, which is why cameras are the major sensors in our system. Using cameras and artificial intelligence, we can see objects and distinguish them in a way that lidar would not, lidar also required us to build a 3D map of our roads. This would mean less processing power, but it would also mean our cars would be confused if a road was reconstructed or worse, its full of plastics. We use radar for long distance calculations and most advance night vision technology there is.
Our taxis have navigation difficulties under bad weather conditions, since South Africa does not have a lot of snow, we have been putting more effort into rainy days and progress has been made. I am very excited about this project, it’s a revolution waiting to happen, and I will be releasing technical specifications in the next coming weeks.