Mississippi family uses AI to preserve late son's voice in highway safety push
This week makes one year since his death
This week makes one year since his death
This week makes one year since his death
A Mississippi family is using artificial intelligence to preserve the voice of their son, Robert Noah, who was killed in a car crash a year ago, to advocate for highway safety improvements.
See the story in the video above
Tally Noah, Robert's father, sits in his office in Jackson, surrounded by pictures of his son, and remembers the type of person he was.
"If you were at school and maybe a new kid at school didn’t have anyone to talk to, Robert would go out his arm around him and show them around the school and that kind of stuff," Tally Noah said.
The accident occurred on Highway 7 between Jackson and Oxford, where Robert, an 18-year-old high school senior, crossed into oncoming traffic, resulting in his death and the death of another driver.
"It was very tough for my older son cuz he was probably the first one who had found out, and he had to tell me, and then the phone call to my wife was the toughest thing I’ve ever done," Tally Noah said.
The family has turned their grief into advocacy, using Robert's voice through AI technology to raise awareness about highway crashes and to urge the state to install rumble strips in the middle of lanes.
"My name is Robert Noah — one year ago, I died on Mississippi’s Highway 7," Robert Noah's voice says in the video.
Tally Noah expressed the eerie feeling of hearing his son's voice again. "It was kind of eerie for me to hear my son’s voice," he said.
According to a report from the Mississippi Highway Patrol, witnesses stated that Robert crossed over the double yellow lines between the lanes. "We don’t really know exactly what happened, but we know maybe if there was something that could have alerted him before going into incoming traffic, maybe if it would have gotten his attention," Tally Noah said.
The advocacy campaign, named "Live Like Robert," features a logo of a traffic cone. "The senior class at MRA came to with the hashtag live like Robert, and we have these cones — one of these that I have encased was in his parking spot during the whole school year of 2024 to 2025," Tally Noah said.
Robert Noah's voice in the video emphasizes the importance of preventing similar tragedies. "I can’t come back, but you can stop another family from getting the call that mine did," he said.
The Mississippi Department of Transportation responded to inquiries about the potential installation of rumble strips, stating, "Any loss of life on a Mississippi roadway is tragic. We are always looking at ways to improve highway safety and will continue working with the federal highway administration and the Mississippi Legislature to invest our resources into improving the safety of our transportation system."
