Artificial intelligence brings many risks and dangers along, so it’s truly refreshing to see it being put to some good use. That’s exactly what happened in England, where a new AI-based technology was used to keep 6,000 deer away from busy rail routes, potentially saving their lives.
It’s no secret that an alarming number of deer die in traffic, and the British railway company Network Rail decided to do something about it. They joined forces with train operator LNER to install the deterrent system to keep deer off the busy rail routes in 2023, and the results are pretty promising.
The AI system in question is programmed to identify a deer approaching the tracks, forcing audible and visual alarms to be activated. The automated system is meant to deter the animals from crossing the rails, and it yielded pretty impressive results during the trial period, deterring around 6,000 deer.
Network Rail rolled out this AI system at Little Bytham and Stoke Junction, but they’re thinking of expanding the scheme given the positive results. Johanna Priestley, the route engineer for Network Rail’s east coast route, told BBC that this measure would help “keep passengers and train crew safe, as well as protecting deer from the railway.”
