Building Trust in AI: Meeting the EU AI Act with Traffic Solutions
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes a central part of modern infrastructure, the importance of safety, transparency, and accountability has never been more critical. In 2025, the European Union will execute the world’s first comprehensive legislation on AI: the EU Artificial Intelligence Act. This pioneering regulation sets the standard for responsible AI development and deployment across various sectors, particularly those impacting millions of lives daily, such as traffic management.
Understanding the EU AI Act: Why It Matters for Traffic Safety
The EU AI Act aims to ensure that AI systems deployed across Europe are safe, transparent, traceable, and non-discriminatory. It introduces a clear framework governing the use of AI based on the level of risk posed to individuals and society. Key principles include:
- Human oversight over automated decisions
- Data privacy and anonymity
- No biometric identification or categorisation in public spaces
- No social scoring or manipulative AI
- Environmentally conscious development
These protections are especially relevant in transportation, where AI influences traffic flow, incident detection, and increasingly, vehicle autonomy. When system decisions affect public safety and mobility, the stakes are high, necessitating that technology meets the most rigorous standards.
Proprietary AI: Built for Compliance and Confidence
To comply with the EU AI Act, a proprietary AI model specifically developed for Intelligent Traffic Systems (ITS) has been created. Unlike generic solutions or open-source datasets, this AI model is:
- Trained exclusively on images from the company’s own thermal and visible-light cameras, ensuring total control and data consistency.
- Version-controlled for full transparency and traceability, allowing for precise knowledge of when, how, and why a model was updated.
- Housed in a closed, secure environment with tightly managed access to training data and model repositories.
- Not connected to the internet during operation, thus protecting against dynamic changes or third-party interference.
Importantly, all data remains anonymous; no images can be linked to identifiable individuals, ensuring full compliance with GDPR regulations.
Why Closed Systems Matter in Traffic Applications
FLIR’s ITS operate as closed systems, eliminating reliance on internet access, data streaming, or AI model changes. This safeguards their performance in critical infrastructure while mitigating exposure to real-time security threats or privacy breaches. Furthermore, FLIR’s solution is non-generic and does not generate new data during operation, instead applying a highly specialised AI model to evaluate real-time events, such as:
- Stopped vehicles
- Smoke
- Wrong-way drivers
- Pedestrians in a tunnel
This evaluation is against a robust library of known traffic behaviours, built using over 30 years of data, providing unmatched depth and accuracy without compromising personal privacy.
A Clear Contrast with Prohibited AI Use
The EU AI Act defines specific practices that are prohibited, which FLIR’s ITS are fundamentally designed to avoid:
- Cognitive manipulation: No FLIR ITS utilize emotional triggers or behaviour-influencing tactics.
- Social scoring: There is no classification of drivers or vehicles based on behaviour, demographics, or socio-economic status.
- Biometric identification: The systems do not identify individuals or collect biometric data.
- Remote facial recognition: FLIR ITS are not used to track or monitor individuals in public spaces.
Instead, the focus is singular: delivering accurate, real-time incident detection that assists traffic operators in improving road safety and reducing response times, particularly in high-risk environments such as tunnels, highways, and inter-urban networks.
Leading the Way in Ethical AI for Traffic Safety
AI is transforming transportation, but it must be implemented responsibly. The integration of innovation and regulation is essential for ensuring that proprietary, transparent, and fully controlled AI models enable traffic authorities to deploy cutting-edge safety solutions while remaining compliant with the EU’s gold standard in AI ethics and governance.
As global AI legislation progresses, the model exemplifies what trustworthy and accountable AI in transportation should entail, fostering close collaboration with local governments and transport authorities to ensure compliance with regional regulations and evolving legal and ethical standards.
