Congo employs traffic robots

 

Kinshasa has been known for its bumper to bumper traffic, the DR Congo has been up in arms for a while about how to relieve daily commuters of the added stress.

image by AFP/Getty Images

A novel solution has been found for the problems, which include corrupt police, traffic offences and hours in unmoving queues. The city has introduced two giant traffic robots and they couldn't have come at a better time.
The robots are connected to a central computer, and have built in cameras, which report traffic offences in real-time. This eliminates the risks of any dodgy dealings, such as bribes. The lack of humanity makes enforcing the law simple.
They are shaped like human traffic cops, with traffic lights on their back and chest.
Designed by Theresa Izay, the owner of a company aimed at promoting the employment of female engineers explained how the innovative traffic helpers work, "When the robot captures images, they are sent over the Internet to a centre where they are stored and could be used to prosecute people who have committed offences."
The need for these robots emerged because drivers and pedestrians alike complained about the dodgy dealings, and laziness of the traffic officers.
The robots are prototypes, but after hundreds of potentially dangerous intersections were identified in Kinshasa alone, there is talk of employing many more.
One pedestrian comments, "When the robot stops the traffic you can see that everybody stops and the pedestrians can cross without a problem... and the traffic police bother us too much. Let's leave robots to do the job".