AI traffic cameras could be watching you on the road
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Police around the world are using artificial intelligence-powered cameras to crack down on behavior like texting behind the wheel and driving without a seat belt.
The traffic cameras, which use AI to detect and flag certain driving behaviors, might make it easier to prosecute more people than ever before for driving infractions.
And the use of the cameras is quickly spreading.
Acusensus, an Australian company, has worked with governments in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States to roll out some of the AI traffic cameras. Its camera system, called "Heads Up," uses AI to catch drivers who are texting while driving or aren't wearing seat belts. The Heads Up cameras take pictures of every vehicle that passes by them, capturing images of their license plates, as well as their front seats. AI analyzes the images and determines how likely it is that a violation occurred, assigning each one a "confidence level."
The cameras have been widely tested in the U.K., where nearly half of the country's police forces have tried them, and in Australia, where they've sparked debates about privacy and drawn media attention.
David Kelly, Acusensus' vice president of government solutions, said that if the software doesn't detect anything, a picture is deleted. However, if the software does detect a violation, a human officer inspects the image to determine whether it depicts an offense.
"If there's no violation, we're not saving the data. There's no data for us to save. And if, when it's reviewed, if there's no citation that's issued, there's no data that's saved," Kelly said.
Kelly said that local governments decide what happens to photos of violations and that Acusensus doesn't keep violations data. Kelly said he wasn't able to share the total number of cameras that have been set up, saying that "planned maintenance" affects the total and that the company defers "to our clients to release that information if they choose."
A recent news release from Transport for Greater Manchester, where the Heads Up system was going through a two-month temporary trial, reported that more than 3,200 people were found not wearing their seat belts or texting and driving.
In the United States, the cameras function differently from those in the U.K. and Australia. Acusensus has cameras in Georgia and North Carolina that use its "Heads Up Real Time Solution."
The Heads Up Real Time system in the United States sends images to nearby police officers, allowing them to stop drivers before violations occur. The other Heads Up product used internationally sends the pictures to law enforcement officials as part of an evidence package, and they can mail out tickets to offending drivers. Kelly said an automated ticketing program, such as Heads Up, would require state legislation to authorize its use.
Speed and red light cameras are already familiar to U.S. drivers, capturing license plates and sending tickets by mail. With speed cameras, the devices usually use detectors to measure vehicles' speeds. If a camera detects that a vehicle is speeding, it will take a picture of the license plate and send a citation to the owner through the mail. Red light cameras work similarly, and photos are usually reviewed by law enforcement officers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
With AI systems like Acusensus', police officers are able to find vehicles that have violated the law and stop them in real time and detect more complex behaviors.
"With a ticket in the mail, you get it three weeks later, and you're like, 'Wait a second. I don't remember that,' but in this instance, you're able to change that behavior immediately," Kelly said. "When we're talking with law enforcement, that's something that they like. They really like the ability to be able to engage with the driver and to make that stop and to change that behavior immediately."
In the United States, Heads Up Real Time targets only commercial vehicles. First Sgt. Christopher Knox of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety said three mobile cameras are set up in the state, usually in areas with high collision rates, such as multilane highways.
Since North Carolina began using Heads Up Real Time last year, seat belt violations have risen sixfold and phone violations have increased ninefold, Acusensus said in a news release.
Beyond state law enforcement, Acusensus has partnered with multiple U.S. universities to trial the Heads Up cameras, including the University of Alabama and the University of California, San Diego — whose programs are ongoing.
With the UC San Diego program, cameras have been set up in the San Diego area, capturing images of commercial truck drivers practicing "unsafe driving practices," such as speeding, using cellphones and failing to wear seat belts. On a website describing the program, the university says the technology identifies the behaviors "anonymously."
At the University of Alabama, Kelly said, the studies focus on passenger cars. Kelly also said Acusensus had a brief demonstration of the cameras at Louisiana State University. According to Govspend, a database of government contracts and purchases, there were eight sites set up in Louisiana.
Kelly said that no colleges' programs involve law enforcement and that the programs are focused on collecting data about unsafe driver practices. He added that Acusensus is confirming the violations it has found and is preparing a report for the researchers. He said the company isn't sharing violation images with UC San Diego or the University of Alabama.
Kelly added that for the college programs "all data is deleted at the end of the program" and that no personally identifiable information is collected.
Acusensus' website says it has multiple measures to protect the privacy of those captured in the images, including a "secure network architecture that heavily restricts and traces all access" and the blurring of parts of images that will be presented for humans to review. Acusensus also encrypts the images, making them accessible only to the government agencies receiving them. It also said its AI system is trained to learn how to detect violations without storing past images.
Acusensus' privacy policy reiterates that "our access to and use of personal information is fairly minimal and limited to that required for our part of the operation of the overall solution" and that "our solutions operate with privacy protections as agreed with our clients (typically government or enforcement agencies)."
However, when it comes to ensuring people's privacy isn't violated, Daniel Solove, an intellectual property and technology law professor at George Washington University Law School, is skeptical of Acusensus' model.
"There has to be real oversight to make sure they are doing what they say they're doing and then oversight to make sure that if they don't do it, [there is] a penalty for not doing it," Solove said. "So they say, 'Oh, yeah, we'll delete it,' but will they? I don't know. I mean, unless there's accountability, that's a meaningless statement to me."
In Queensland, Australia, where Heads Up is being used, the government insists that its residents have nothing to worry about when it comes to privacy. On its website, the Queensland government has disclosed that "two privacy impact assessments have been independently undertaken by an external service provider," and it has made the reports open to the public.
Acusensus said in a news release that in a trial in Queensland in 2020, more than 15,000 people were detected using their cellphones and over 2,200 people were detected not wearing seat belts. The Queensland government reported that since it set up the cameras, road deaths have gone down by 7.1%.
Knox said that in North Carolina, when an image is found to have recorded a violation, it will be kept to be added to an investigative file and that when a case is dismissed, images are disposed of. He said the only people who have access to the images are the prosecutors and the investigating officers. Knox said the images aren't shared externally in any way but added that he wasn't sure whether any external agency or organization enforced that provision.
"We'll [sic] admittedly hear some folks raise some privacy concerns, because these cameras are set up at an angle to be able to [look] into the cabin of a truck, but I think folks generally understand and appreciate that distracted driving is an issue," Ben Greenberg, president of the North Carolina Trucking Association, told Fox News.
Jolynn Dellinger, a senior lecturing fellow at Duke University School of Law who specializes in privacy law and policy and tech ethics, said there may be a trade-off between privacy and safety when it comes to enforcement systems such as Acusensus'.
"As technology becomes more and more powerful, privacy necessarily can shrink in proportion to the power of that technology," Dellinger said. "It may be a case where, in this case, privacy should be compromised for this greater good, but it's still important to recognize that it is a privacy interest."
She added that it is important to remember that the technology can provide a more efficient way to enforce the law. In every state except Montana, texting and driving is illegal, and depending on the state, it can even be illegal to simply have your phone in your hand while you're driving, regardless of whether it's being used.
Failing to wear a seat belt isn't as heavily punishable, with only 35 states having laws for seat belts that allow officers to issue tickets solely because of the lack of seat belt use. All states where Acusensus has installed cameras have primary laws for seat belt use. Although the use of seat belts is high, with 91.9% of drivers using them last year, commercial truck drivers are less likely to drive with them on; 14% of commercial motor vehicle drivers say they don't wear them, according to a 2016 survey conducted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Texting while driving is a growing concern in the United States. According to a Pew Research study, drivers distracted by their phones while driving was people's No. 1 concern when it came to road safety, with 78% of people finding it a major issue. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that over 3,000 people died in vehicle crashes that involved distracted drivers in 2022.
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Well for whomever AI is watching it is sure a boring show
I am a careful and safe driver and seldom go anywhere interesting.
Nothing to hide and no real issue with people watching I guess.
It reminds me of speed limit cameras, cameras at red lights and stop signs - the people who complain about them seem to be the people who are speeding, bit coming to complete stop or running through red lights.
Just saying
Completely agree
Misuse of technology
Why?
If it serves the public good (and safer roadways and streets certainly serve the public good) then is absolutely the proper use of technology
Do not like being watched and having somebody trying to get me
Don't do anything (speeding, running lights or stop signs, or texting while driving, etc) and it won't matter who is watching .
not everybody is perfect. The machines are not perfect either nor are automatic ticket writing machines checked like operator used radar with observation, comparing to pace speeds and tuning forks
Morning.. wouldn't need it if we didn't have morons on the road .
Indeed, but morons are on the roads and the cameras are needed
Here if you want to dispute it you can.. request the said photo at your own cost and then go and complain to the authorities..
99% of the sookers are not heard from again..some go on TV to complain etc they are hard done by..the general consensus is they are a bloody wanker, stop sooking and pay the fine..
Some say they were holding an ice cream not a phone..oops that is illegal as well so they make a total dork of themselves on national TV..🤣
we've got red light cameras all over the metro area. I've been photographed 3 times in the last 7 years and got mailed "tickets". I paid the first ticket, then I found out about a loophole in the law here and blew off the other 2 tickets. nothing on my driving record showed up.
good for you!
governments want the money, safety and correctness are not as important
All evidence to the contrary - most want public safety
All evidence to the contrary - most want to get where they want to be quickly without being bothered
where else do you what ticket wring cameras?
If the cops want to write me a ticket they should have to take their chances out there with the other assholes, the ones that can't drive, the illegals with no driver licenses or insurance, If i have to drive with them so should the police.
Ben Franklin said "He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither"
You got that right! Make them work for their tick quotas and money
Why did people get CBs when the government forced the awful and hated 55 mph speed limit on us?
Why do we use Wayz with the police alerts?
Why do people buy radar detectors?
Not as much love for traffic tickets as you think
basic radar detectors are just noise makers in moderate to heavy traffic now, since newer vehicles utilize internal radar for distracted driving features. very expensive radar detectors can filter that out, but the newer solutions are expensive radar and laser jammers, and strobe lights to turn the traffic lights at major intersections. all illegal to have in a vehicle.
it's a ticket for gullible suckers in colorado. a $75 ticket with no points assessed and the fine mailed to some address in chicago. fuck that noise. the loophole in colorado was that LE must witness the infraction and issue a signed ticket to the perp. the company that owns the camera equipment has been experiencing vandalization of it for a few years now and have had to incur the additional expense of moving it out of reach or installing additional surveillance. in the early days, silly string in an aerosol can used to obscure the lenses worked best.
Glad I live in the middle of the Sonora Desert on the AZ border where there is lots of open desert outside of town. We have two cameras in town but only at the two busiest intersections.
Traffic cameras are a scam Boss Hogg would be proud of.
You know Boss Hogg was a fictional character, he is not really watching you
You can relax
These cameras are sold by for profit companies that take a sizeable percent of the tickets. The more tickets, the more profits and the more campaign contributions they make to politicians. They are worse than anything the writers of The Dukes of Hazzard came up with.
Traffic tickets are an easy revenue stream for governments.
But do they also increase public safety.
Turnpike tolls are also a steady source of income for the states but the money funds needed projects in the state
Do turnpike funds end up as political contributions?
They really don't. They do generate money for municipalities though.
Check out this article
signs warning about red light cameras at major intersections probably do more than the cameras themselves. the city programmed a 2 second delay between light signals which did more to eliminate accidents by those that punch it when the light turns yellow. that said, it's the social justice warriors that drive the speed limit in the left lane on the interstate that irritate me. I used to pass them in the emergency lane and toss an empty water bottle thru the sun roof when I went around them, but I no longer drive aggressively ...
There are cameras on nearly every light in our little city and I don't think they are turned on.
My pet peeve are those drivers that don't use turn signals....
"Growing pains. . . . " is a real thing.
you'd know it if they were. red light cameras are big and emit 3 blinding flashes. front plate, rear plate and face behind the wheel. you might be thinking that strobe receivers are cameras. they're mounted up by the traffic lights and the strobes on fire trucks alter the traffic light changes so they can easily get thru an intersection.
ugh, don't get me started ...
I get it, especially if it can catch those 'car-spinning - donuts' (the other name of it eludes me right now) onto the asphalt in communities. We once had a. . .person. . . do so in the middle of a lane where a road bents. . . with children standing by waiting on a school bus. . . very narrow lanes and dangerous angles. That said, even the best of us are not as perfect as AI catching us absentmindedly doing one thing. . . or another while behind the wheel. (For example, fixing our noses, teeth, 'rocking out,' or looking distractedly at the person out the window, and so on.) All which over time can become a reason to 'outlaw' the activity once discovered by AI cameras.
Morning..had them for years..ping people left, right and centre..
Do the wrong thing, get a happy snap and don't sook about it..
We even have breatherlizers to run by the cops, it is the norm..drive along a street the cops have a road block set up and blow in this please or count to 5..
No one bats an eye lid, if you're over .05 you know what's coming..lose your licence, lose your car and can end up in jail... it's excellent and works extremely well..
When people complain and have a whinge they have been fined the response here people will literally laugh at you and call you a f'n idiot..
Put me or any of my family in danger from your drinking or texting while driving then that will be the time I wish for a gun.
Maybe, if and when it becomes a way of life from coast to coast USA (or in the state of California), we can all try around in that 'perfect' smile for the camera (or is that scowling?) that we are taught from childhood? I am pretty sure a great deal of night-time 'behavior' is being captured by those cameras. . . It is good that I am home most nights.
Given the selfie obsessed nature of people these days you'd figure this initiative would have complete support, especially if you could download and post any pictures of yourself
Big brother is a fictional character like Boss Hogg, so some say you should relax.
But I actually DO HAVE a big brother, he's older than me, bigger than me, smarter than me and he emails me jokes that I post on NT.
He is a good fellow like you, not that 1984 character
What's 'funny' if any of it is to be considered so is that today I watched the number of cameras and . . .'contraptions" mounted on 'stilt-ty ' poles I passed under. Some I recognized from memory others just seem to have appeared out of nowhere!
They are pervasive. . . and sneaky, lurching, devices just resting there in all sorts of weather watching me.
Here's the thing: I wonder if the 24/7 operators (we see in movie scenes observing screens) get 'familiar' with the habits and 'up' hours of the people who regularly pass under their gaze?
Hmmm. Inquiring minds.
Ticket cameras are symbols of oppression,
auto insurance companies used to provide the radar guns to LE and then lobbied state legislatures to share DL records with them, and then it went national. the last legitimate ticket I got was 10 years ago.
western colorado, aircraft vascar, came up on a trooper that was stopped standing outside his car and he waved me over. I thought I was going to jail, but he was a local and knew my sister and BIL and let me off the hook with a 4 point ticket.
Insurance companies do many devious things
in light of recent events, maybe more CEO's will connect the dots ...