Waiting Time Estimation of Hydrogen-Fuel Vehicles with YOLO Real-Time Object Detection

Widespread use of fossil fuels as a source of energy leads to automobile emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHG) that plays a significant role in environmental pollution. A transition from fossil fuel to cleaner and more energy-efficient alternative fuel vehicles such as hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), is a vital step in reducing the automobile emission. However, the insufficient charging stations and the long charging time compared to the conventional vehicles have to be overcome before hydrogen fuel-based vehicles can be fully adopted on a mass scale. This paper proposes a method that can count the approximate waiting time by using YOLO real-time object detection to detect how many hydrogen fuel-based vehicles are charging or queueing in the charging station. Therefore, the driver can choose the charging station that has minimal waiting time so that the insufficient charging stations and the long charging time can be managed.