AI and drones transform road inspection and traffic analysis

The road inspection and traffic analysis industries are undergoing a significant transition from manual methods to AI-driven intelligent systems. In China, policy drivers such as the "Implementation Opinions on Artificial Intelligence + Transportation" are accelerating the adoption of AI for infrastructure construction, routine inspection, and disease diagnosis. Leading service providers like Lingjing Cloud utilize a "cloud-edge-end" architecture and edge computing to identify over 30 types of road anomalies, such as cracks and potholes, in real-time with high precision. Other notable companies include Wuhan Yichang Technology, which focuses on highway digital intelligence, and Shanghai Tongluyun Traffic Technology, which has developed a large-scale road management model.

In Taiwan, the Ministry of Transportation has released a new version of the "Highway Capacity Manual" and accompanying analysis software. This update leverages drones and AI image recognition to collect and analyze traffic flow data, significantly improving the accuracy of highway congestion assessments. By using drones, researchers can monitor a 900-meter range—far exceeding the 100-meter limitation of traditional cameras—allowing for detailed observations of vehicle speed, density, and lane changes during merging and diverging maneuvers.