Sophia

 


If you are travelling in a car in Rwanda, and someone in the car says "Sophia", the driver will immediately hit the brakes. Sophia is the name used here for the hundreds of speed cameras on the roads.

The original Sophia is a humanoid robot built in Hong Kong. It is one of the first robots to make an almost "human" impression through artificial intelligence. You can talk to her, she responds correctly, uses hand gestures and facial expressions. Sophia visited Rwanda in 2019 during a congress on the transformation of Africa. She made a lasting impression in a country that likes to call itself the Singapore of Africa. In the airport, there is a robot -also called Sophia- that looks a little less feminine, or even human. It supposedly can move around and measure the temperature of people in the departure hall. Yes, supposedly, because I have not yet seen the Sophia robot in action. It is always parked neatly by a wall or in a corner, charging.


Anyway, everything that looks like a robot is called Sophia here. And so are the speed cameras that make many drivers swear. They definitely look less attractive than the original Sophia. They are grey-black striped columns. In the beginning there was some mistake with the settings. On a road where the maximum speed was 60, the camera was triggered as soon as you passed 40km/h. This caused a twitterstorm which was settled by the President. Since then, the settings have been adjusted.

Every driver is warned: wherever you go on Rwandan roads, you will encounter Sophia.

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