Plus Malaysia Berhad would like to thank the writer for his suggestion on the use of drone technology to patrol the highways. In fact, we welcome any suggestions to make the highway safer.
Based on our research, current commercial grade drones are unable to fly up and down to our approximately 1,000 kilometre stretch of the highway due to current battery limitation. These cameras are currently being upgraded to support video analytics with machine learning capability to automatically detect traffic and abnormal situational scenarios along the highway and the rest and service areas. As such, we are in the opinion that the use of video analytics is a better option as it is a permanent feature, complete with 24/7, 365-day recordings.
Engineering touches on continuous application of the latest technologies and road safety standards on the highway most notably at accident-prone areas or ’blackspots’ such as pavement upgrades, new and improved road safety furniture and the video analytics technology, to name a few.