Ask a rider what the biggest danger they face on the road is, and these days, you’ll usually hear complaints of other motorists on their cellphones. Distracted drivers are everywhere, and there don’t seem to be enough police to deal with them—so they’re trying a different idea in the U.K.
Instead of adding more patrol cars, Cornwall and Devon Police are instead installing moveable camera systems that use AI to determine where to hand out tickets—sort of.
Here’s how it works. The system starts with a two-camera array, with one camera aiming straight down and the second pointed on a horizontal plane. The AI comes into play when it analyzes the images that those cameras shoot. Skynet The AI program then figures out who looks suspicious, like they might have been on their phone while driving, and then forwards that information on to a human. This flesh-and-blood agent further analyzes the information and decides whether to mail a warning or a ticket to the driver caught on camera—or do nothing at all.
While most bikers don’t like the idea of traffic enforcement by cameras and AI (something we’ve panned here at Canada Moto Guide, ourselves), at least there is a human element in this system.
The camera array and the AI that backs it up is actually an Australian invention, from a company called Ascensus. The cameras have actually been tried in shorter stints, but this is a new 12-month trial period that will use the arrays in areas with a variety of traffic patterns to see where most distracted driving is actually happening, and where the cameras would have the most impact if deployed.
And frankly, it’s only a matter of time until this happens—automated traffic enforcement by camera might be an idea that started in Canada, but it is spreading all over the world.
