The Beacon Blog
Transportation and mobility are critical to virtually every sector of our economy. But so many people face transportation challenges. Traffic is the most obvious, but safety is a huge issue too: more than 41,000 people a year die on U.S. roads. Most of the improvements will come from technology, but it’s challenging for government agencies to adopt the next generation of technology, quickly.
We write about how technology is revolutionizing the transportation world, how to efficiently and effectively take advantage of all of the new technology, AI’s role in this, and workforce challenges and solutions.
Go Deeper
A.I. in Transportation at ITS Carolinas
Transcript (edited by A.I.) Note: this was transcribed by Otter.ai and cleaned up by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It therefore may not be 100% accurate, but it’s pretty darn close and saved us hours of time 🙂 So, the title of my presentation: AI, AI, O. That’s a joke—like E-I-E-I-O. I could...
Read More
RAGs, explained.
RAG vs. Non-RAG LLMs: What DOTs Need to Know Who Comes Up with All These Acronyms? If you’ve spent any time reading about AI (which based on the conversations we’re having is…all of you!), you’ve probably run into the acronym RAG—which stands for Retrieval-Augmented Generation. (And of course, LLMs —...
Read More
A.I. is Bad, A.I. is Good, A.I. is Misunderstood
Audio and slides from Jim Anderson’s presentation to the AASHTO Committee on Traffic Safety Operations, August 27, 2024. “A.I. is Bad. A.I. is Good. A.I. is Misunderstood.” Transcript Note: this was transcribed by Otter.ai and cleaned up by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It therefore may not be 100% accurate, but it’s pretty...
Read More
Beyond Software: The Human Side of Beacon
At Beacon, we’re on a mission to transform how government technology projects get done, accelerating timelines and delivering outcomes faster than ever before. We don’t just provide software; we offer a dedicated services layer that ensures your project’s success from start to finish. The Challenges DOTs Face in Implementing Technology...
Read More
The Hidden Cost of Traceability
Technology is moving faster than ever – we’re seeing more sophisticated ATMS, connected infrastructure, more flexible interfaces, more powerful functionality. But the way we implement it is stuck in the past. Beacon has a new approach to delivering technology that moves as quickly as we think, takes work off of...
Read More
AI Applications in Transportation
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have far surpassed the science fiction stories of decades past. As panic over the robots coming for our jobs subsides, it has become increasingly clear that AI and ML developments are perfectly positioned to help humans do their jobs better, not replace us...
Read More