HEADWAY: The Speed Controller

THEME: Energy & Transportation

INTRODUCTION:
Speeding is a major factor in traffic deaths and injuries. Excessive speeding reduces the amount of time
the driver has to react in a dangerous situation to avoid a crash, increases vehicle stopping distance,
and reduces the ability of road safety structures to protect vehicle occupants in a crash. In 2019 alone,
India reported over 151 thousand fatalities due to road accidents. Notably, while India has about one
percent of the world’s vehicle population, it also accounted for about six percent of the global road
traffic incidents. Almost 70 percent of the accidents involved young Indians.

WHY ? – THE NEED:

In India, a big reason for speeding habits is inadequate law enforcement leading to low compliance.
Effective enforcement includes establishing, regularly updating, and enforcing laws at the national,
municipal, and local levels including penalties. The government has taken many steps in recent years,
however these are not enough to influence behavior of people. This is where our Project comes in.

HEADWAY is a device which uses AI to combine and process input data sets and pushes alerts to the
driver and traffic authorities in real time. The device can be integrated in all vehicles with 4 wheels and
above.

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THE DEVICE:

COMPONENTS:
HEADWAY comprises of a Communications Unit linked to a Circuit Board which acts as the CPU for the
device.

INPUTS:
HEADWAY obtains input data sets from two sources:
1. Speed of the car is obtained from the Speedometer;
2. Location and Speed Limit of the car is obtained from Google Cloud through GPS tracker located in
communications unit.

WORKING:
HEADWAY’s CPU compares the input data and alerts the driver of the vehicle in case speed of the car is
more than the speed limit. The alert is given by blinking a warning light and audible alarm. This alert
continues to flash & sound till the speed remains above the limit.
The driver has an option of turning the alarm off by pressing a button. In case the alarm is turned off a
notification is sent to traffic authorities with details of vehicle, location and other details.

BENEFITS:
HEADWAY influences the driver behavior by giving timely alerts and also enforces compliance by
sending notifications to the authorities automatically.