Artificial intelligence-powered cameras are being used by police worldwide to combat driving without a seat belt and texting while driving.
More people may be prosecuted for driving violations than ever before thanks to traffic cameras that employ artificial intelligence (AI) to identify and flag specific driving habits.
Additionally, more and more people are using the cameras.
To implement some of the AI traffic cameras, the Australian business Acusensus has collaborated with the governments of the US, UK, and Australia. Its Heads Up camera technology employs artificial intelligence to detect drivers who are not wearing seat belts or who are texting while operating a motor vehicle. Every car that drives by them is photographed by the Heads Up cameras, which also record the front seats and license plates. AI evaluates the photos and assigns a confidence rating to each one based on the likelihood that a violation happened.
The cameras have been extensively tested in Australia, where they have generated privacy disputes and media attention, and in the United Kingdom, where about half of the nation’s police agencies have used them.
According to David Kelly, vice president of government solutions at Acusensus, a photograph is erased if the program finds nothing. A human officer examines the image to see if it shows an offense, but, if the machine does identify a violation.
We won’t save the data if there is no violation. We don’t have any data to preserve. Additionally, Kelly stated that no data would be preserved if, upon review, no citation was issued.
According to Kelly, Acusensus does not retain violation data, and local governments make the decisions on what happens to images of violations. Kelly added that he was unable to provide the entire number of cameras that had been installed since planned maintenance has an impact on the total and the company lets our clients decide whether or not to disclose that information.
More than 3,200 people were caught texting and driving or failing to buckle up, according to a recent news release from Transport for Greater Manchester, where the Heads Up system was undergoing a two-month temporary trial.
The cameras in the US operate differently than those in the UK and Australia. Acusensus has cameras that use their Heads Up Real Time Solution in North Carolina and Georgia.
In the US, police officers can stop drivers before infractions happen by using the Heads Up Real Time technology, which transmits photos to adjacent cops. Law enforcement officials can mail tickets to violating drivers after receiving the images as part of an evidence package from the other Heads Up product used abroad. Kelly stated that state legislation would be necessary to permit the deployment of an automated ticketing mechanism like Heads Up.
Drivers in the United States are already accustomed to speed and red light cameras, which record license plates and mail tickets. In order to measure a vehicle’s speed, speed cameras often use detectors. A camera will take a photo of the license plate and mail the owner a penalty if it detects that the car is speeding. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, red light cameras operate similarly, and police personnel typically examine the images.
Police officers may now identify and halt vehicles that have broken the law in real time and identify more sophisticated behaviors thanks to AI technologies like Acusensus.
Three weeks later, you receive a ticket in the mail, and you say, “Wait a minute.” I don’t recall that, but in this case, Kelly stated, you may instantly alter that behavior. That is something that law enforcement likes to discuss with us. They truly enjoy being able to interact with the driver, stop them, and instantly alter their conduct.
Heads Up Real Time only targets business cars in the US. According to North Carolina Department of Public Safety First Sgt. Christopher Knox, the state has three mobile cameras installed, typically in high-collision locations like multilane roads.
According to a news release from Accusensus, phone and seat belt infractions have climbed ninefold and sixfold, respectively, since North Carolina started implementing Heads Up Real Time last year.
In addition to state law enforcement, Acusensus has collaborated with several American colleges, such as the University of Alabama and the University of California, San Diego, whose initiatives are still in progress, to test the Heads Up cameras.
Through the UC San Diego program, cameras have been installed around the San Diego region to record commercial truck drivers engaging in risky driving behaviors like speeding, mobile phone use, and seat belt failure. The institution claims on a website outlining the program that the technology anonymously detects the behaviors.
According to Kelly, the research at the University of Alabama focuses on passenger cars. Additionally, Kelly reported that Acusensus briefly demonstrated the cameras at Louisiana State University. Eight locations were established in Louisiana, according to Govspend, a database of government purchases and contracts.
According to Kelly, the initiatives at colleges are centered on gathering information regarding risky driving practices and do not include police enforcement. He went on to say that Acusensus is working on a report for the researchers and is verifying the infractions it has discovered. According to him, neither the University of Alabama nor UC San Diego receive violation photographs from the corporation.
Kelly further mentioned that no personally identifying information is gathered for the college programs and that all data is erased at the conclusion of the program.
According to the Acusensus website, it has several safeguards in place to preserve the privacy of the people photographed, such as a secure network design that severely limits and tracks all access and blurs portions of photos that will be shown for human review. Additionally, Acusensus encrypts the photos so that only the government organizations that receive them can access them. Additionally, it claimed that its AI system is taught to identify infractions without keeping track of previous photos.
Our solutions operate with privacy protections as agreed with our clients (usually government or enforcement agencies), and our access to and use of personal information is fairly minimal and limited to that which is necessary for our portion of the overall solution’s operation, according to Acusensus’ privacy policy.
Daniel Solove, a professor of intellectual property and technology law at George Washington University Law School, is dubious of the Acusensus concept, though, when it comes to guaranteeing that people’s privacy isn’t infringed.
According to Solove, there must be genuine oversight to ensure that they are carrying out their stated obligations and further oversight to ensure that there is a punishment for noncompliance. “Oh, yeah, we’ll delete it,” they say, but will they? I’m not sure. To me, that statement is meaningless unless there is responsibility.
The government of Queensland, Australia, where Heads Up is being deployed, maintains that citizens there need not be concerned about privacy issues.The Queensland government has made the results of two independent privacy impact assessments conducted by an outside service provider available to the public on its website.
According to a news release from Acusensus, during a trial in Queensland in 2020, over 2,200 people were found not wearing seat belts and over 15,000 people were found using cellphones. According to the Queensland government, there has been a 7.1% decrease in traffic fatalities since the cameras were installed.
According to Knox, in North Carolina, photos that are found to have captured a violation are retained and included to an investigative file; images are disposed of when a case is dismissed. According to him, only the investigating officers and prosecutors have access to the pictures. Knox claimed that the photos aren’t shared with anybody outside the company, but he wasn’t positive if that clause was upheld by any outside organizations or agencies.
“I think people generally understand and appreciate that distracted driving is an issue,” Ben Greenberg, president of the North Carolina Trucking Association, told Fox News. “We’ll [sic] 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.”
When it comes to enforcement systems like Acusensus, privacy and safety may have to be traded off, according to Jolynn Dellinger, a senior teaching fellow at Duke University School of Law who focuses on privacy law and policy and tech ethics.
According to Dellinger, as technology advances in strength, privacy will inevitably have to decrease in proportion. It’s crucial to acknowledge that privacy is a concern, even while there may be instances where it may be sacrificed for the larger good.
It’s crucial to keep in mind that technology can offer a more effective means of enforcing the law, she continued. 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, withonly 35 stateshaving 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 surveyconducted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
Texting while driving is a growing concern in the United States. According toa 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 Administrationreported that over 3,000 people diedin vehicle crashes that involved distracted drivers in 2022.
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