EaseMyTrip co-founder Prashant Pitti has pledged Rs 1 crore to fix Bengaluru’s traffic issue by using artificial intelligence and Google Maps data to find identify the choke points in the city that cause massive snarls.
Pitti himself was stuck in traffic and ended up spedning over two hours to cover a distance of just 11 kilometres late Saturday night. Sharing his experience on in a post on X (formerly Twitter), Pitti expressed frustration over and said he was stuck for 100 minutes at a single intersection on Outer Ring Road with no signal or traffic police in sight.
“I don’t want one more Bengaluru traffic meme or rant. I want to fix it,” the co-founder wrote. He further referred to the recently launched “Road Management Insight” tool by Google Maps, which provides traffic data in Big Query format. Pitti proposed to use technology in identifying choke-points and their exact timings across the city by using satellite imagery and AI .
Pitti is willing to fund one or two senior ML/AI engineers, along with the Google Maps API calls, satellite imagery access, and GPU infrastructure needed to process the traffic data.
However, the project can begin only when Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) or BBMP give access to their raw traffic data or APIs and constitutes a team that will act on the insights generated.
He urged the citizens to support his initiative by tagging any traffic official they know and sharing and commenting on the post to grab attention of the right authorities. He also encouraged AI professionals to join the project on part-time basis to help end the menace.
“Bangalore is India’s tech future. And the people making it happen deserve much better,” Pitti said.
How Internet Reacted
Several social media users expressed eagerness to join the traffic initiative proposed by Pitti. AI/ML professionals stepped forward, offering their time, insights, and expertise to support the project.
“Hey Prashant, interested in contributing,” one user wrote. “Hi Prashant. We have done some work on this already. Happy to connect,” another commented.
Another user shared he had been contemplating to launch a similar initiative wrote, “I am interested to work. I was thinking about this for a long time but never took any initiatives. Happy to see you’ve planned this. I’d love to be part of the AI/ML team.”
One user referred to a prior submission made to the state government, saying that he was ready to share its details and collaborate on the project's implementation. “Regarding the architectural proposal submitted to the ministry via email to address traffic management, I am pleased to learn that our perspectives align. I am available to share the proposal, discuss its details, and collaborate on its implementation,” the user wrote.