Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras' Centre of Excellence for Road Safety (CoERS)  successfully concluded the Road Safety Hackathon 2023 aimed at developing India-specific Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) solutions.

The hackathon was organised with support from HL Mando Anand India Limited and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. It commenced in early 2023 with 47 teams as initial participants. After multiple rounds of evaluation by academia and industry experts, six teams could qualify for the finale. 

In the grand finale held recently, participants from several colleges across India presented their solutions and provided live product demonstrations.

The imperative behind the initiative was rooted in the alarming statistics of road traffic crashes in 2021, which recorded 4,12,432 crashes, resulting in 1,53,972 fatalities and 3,84,448 injuries. Driver error accounted for a significant 84% of crashes (80.3% of fatalities, and 83.9% of injuries) in motorised vehicles in 2016. Despite ongoing efforts by stakeholders to mitigate accidents, the numbers persistently rise each year. 

While safer roads have been designed, the importance of developing safer vehicles remains paramount. Advent of several active and passive safety features have greatly contributed to the reduction in fatalities and crashes. However, increases in traffic volumes, and risky driving behaviour of drivers continue to pose a challenge in reducing the accidents.

The first prize was awarded to Team Safety Guardians from Chalapathi Institute of Technology, Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Nuzvid, and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay for Bike Safety Enhancement System.