Enforcing traffic laws is one thing, but sooner or later they’re going to get hooked up to a central archive and database and be used to create a license-plate-tracking panopticon.
There was a study done about this in the late 90s. With existing analog cameras in New York City police were able to track cars license plates with 90% accuracy. Keep in mind this was pre-GPS, pre-digital processing, and pre-image recognition.
Just think how much further camera technology, computer software, and image recognition has come since then. Not to mention that your phone and car or GPS enabled and constantly tracking your location.
I used to agree with this until I had one false positive me a few years ago. Now I think they’re bullshit since the cops that sign off on the citations don’t even look at them.
Yeah, where I live (Seattle), automated systems are basically the only traffic enforcement we have because our police are a bunch of deadbeats who decided a few years back that enforcing laws was beneath them.
Traffic enforcement cameras are good for all road-users, including car drivers! We need more of them, tbh. And I say that as a petrol-head.
Enforcing traffic laws is one thing, but sooner or later they’re going to get hooked up to a central archive and database and be used to create a license-plate-tracking panopticon.
There was a study done about this in the late 90s. With existing analog cameras in New York City police were able to track cars license plates with 90% accuracy. Keep in mind this was pre-GPS, pre-digital processing, and pre-image recognition.
Just think how much further camera technology, computer software, and image recognition has come since then. Not to mention that your phone and car or GPS enabled and constantly tracking your location.
This has been here for over 30 years.
Already happening
“Is that a barcode scanner? That can be used by the government to track my purchases!”
–Burt Gummer (Tremors 2, 1996)
The government already tracks your car with its GPS transmitter.
I used to agree with this until I had one false positive me a few years ago. Now I think they’re bullshit since the cops that sign off on the citations don’t even look at them.
I too throw my phone in the trash can after the spell checker made a single mistake.
Yeah, where I live (Seattle), automated systems are basically the only traffic enforcement we have because our police are a bunch of deadbeats who decided a few years back that enforcing laws was beneath them.