A Canyons School District bus is pictured outside of the Capitol in Salt Lake City, on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. Artificial intelligence will now be used on school buses. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)

SALT LAKE CITY — This school year, Canyons School District has placed artificial intelligence cameras on their school buses.

The district spent half a million dollars to equip all their buses with artificial intelligence. They are the biggest district in the state to fully utilize the technology.

How it works

The cameras face forward and record the road ahead, but they also record the driver and what’s happening inside the bus.

Canyons School District Lead Dispatcher Matt Curtis says the cameras can tell a driver to speed up or slow down. They can even make a noise if a driver appears to be falling asleep. And it recognizes if the driver makes too harsh of a break or turn.

“If we are going too fast, if we are going over 10 miles per hour over the speed limit for more than 20 seconds, they get an audible ‘please slow down.’ And reverse if you are on the freeway and you are going too slow… It will tell you to please speed up,” Curtis said.

Driver reactions

You would think being filmed would make a driver apprehensive. But, for most drivers, this is not the case.

Curtis said the technology can actually benefit drivers and help prove that an accident was not the bus driver’s fault.

“We’ve had times where [the police] wanted to give bus drivers the ticket and we’ve shown them the video… And they’ve said ‘oh wait, it wasn’t the bus driver’s fault.’”

Related:

• ‘Trust in technology’: Utah creates Office of Artificial Intelligence to safely, smartly navigate AI rise
• Utah bus drivers urging drivers to respect flashing stop arms