In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a home-made robotic traffic cop has become the ultimate answer to nagging traffic challenges in major cities in the country. Standing just under 2-and-half-meters, the robots were first installed in 2013 as a pilot study. Authorities quickly bought into the innovation, and these days, these A-I officers have become a common sight in the DRC. CGTN's Chris Ocamringa has more.

 

These super sized traffic robots have been manning traffic in down town Kinshasha for 5 years. The city like many African capitals have unruly traffic. And its visible on many cars. Also quite often, motorists spend hours in traffic jams. In 2013- just two robots were installed to test how effective they could be. The result has been astounding-motorists love them.

 

GIGAL TEKALUMONE MOTORIST "The robot has helped ease the flow of traffic but there are times when it malfunctions. That's when police officers come in handy. By and large, it has helped improve traffic"

 

NELSON MOTORIST "The robot is more effective. its always monitoring traffic unlike some traffic officers who become lax when tired and those who like extorting bribes from us" The robots are built locally. Several of them have now been installed at traffic junctions here in Kinshasha and major cities like Goma and Lubumbashi. Therese Izay is the brain behind the innovation - she had designed the robots to solve Kinshasa's traffic problems but success here has now gotten her looking beyond the local market.

 

THERESE IZAY ROBOTIC ENGINEER "We are ready to supply our technology to other countries. We want to expand our market share. We are only waiting for orders from other African countries. We have already signed a contract with authorities in the Central African Republic and are set to sign one with officials in Gabon and Congo Brazzaville. They all want to transfer our technology to their countries" 

 

CHRIS OCAMRINGA KINSHASHA, DR CONGO  "A robot like this one here costs about 25,000 dollars -its a huge cost compared to measly paid traffic officers in DRC-The designers say that cost makes up for the human failings like human lapses extortion of money from motorists" Plus the robots are fitted with cameras so they provide real time video feed of all traffic violations to a central terminal controlled by security agents. The idea is traffic offenders can then be tracked for prosecution. Chris Ocamringa CGTN-Kinshasha Democratic Republic of Congo.