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AI cameras catch 297 drivers in three days in Cornwall

bbc.co.uk

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Re: AI cameras catch 297 drivers in three days in Cornwall

#21

Post by contravariant »

ggambetta wrote: post #16

I'm surprised by the early reactions here. Looking at the picture in the article, of a driver texting while the passenger holds the wheel (!!!), my first reaction is "OH YES PLEASE GET THESE INCREDIBLY IRRESPONSIBLE PEOPLE OFF THE STREETS ASAP". I don't want to die because some idiot is texting while driving. Whether these idiots are caught by a human looking attentively 24/7 or by a high-speed camera with an AI flag…

It's basically a slippery slope argument. Which is not completely unfair, police have a terrible track record when it comes to using technological means responsibly.

Re: AI cameras catch 297 drivers in three days in Cornwall

#23

Post by dymk »

sergiotapia wrote: post #19

It is your civic duty to destroy each and every one of these if you find them out and about. They can't fix them all and will eventually give up. The west cannot become China. There is nowhere else to go.

No, they'll catch it on camera and arrest you for destruction of public property

Re: AI cameras catch 297 drivers in three days in Cornwall

#25

Post by yabones »

This is a complex one. On one hand, cracking down on distracted driving is absolutely a good thing. Thousands of people are killed by negligent drivers every year, and every single one is an unnecessary tragedy.

But, there need to be some guardrails on this program. The UK police have a habit of keeping massive amounts of data around for years, and storing it inappropriately. I have no doubt all of the images this system takes will end up on a public S3 bucket or left open on an insecure email server within the next decade.

For the Americans/Canadians, also consider that there are already a LOT of speed cameras in the UK already -- far more than there are across the ocean. The only new thing here is that instead of connecting it to a radar system, it's using computer vision to decide to fine somebody or not. It's new technology, but not really a paradigm change for the culture.

Re: AI cameras catch 297 drivers in three days in Cornwall

#26

Post by entropi »

ggambetta wrote: post #16

I'm surprised by the early reactions here. Looking at the picture in the article, of a driver texting while the passenger holds the wheel (!!!), my first reaction is "OH YES PLEASE GET THESE INCREDIBLY IRRESPONSIBLE PEOPLE OFF THE STREETS ASAP". I don't want to die because some idiot is texting while driving. Whether these idiots are caught by a human looking attentively 24/7 or by a high-speed camera with an AI flag…

>What exactly is wrong or dystopian here? AI bad? Cameras bad?

Well no, not by itself. The way I look at it, this is a precedence. It works, and there is not a lot of resistance. That's huge. And there will be next steps to this.

It doesn't take too many steps from here to a distopian surveillance state.

Re: AI cameras catch 297 drivers in three days in Cornwall

#27

Post by some_random »

ggambetta wrote: post #16

I'm surprised by the early reactions here. Looking at the picture in the article, of a driver texting while the passenger holds the wheel (!!!), my first reaction is "OH YES PLEASE GET THESE INCREDIBLY IRRESPONSIBLE PEOPLE OFF THE STREETS ASAP". I don't want to die because some idiot is texting while driving. Whether these idiots are caught by a human looking attentively 24/7 or by a high-speed camera with an AI flag…

People here are concerned for the exact same reason they're concerned about on-device image scanning, they're not pro-pedophilia they're worried about the future uses of this capability.

Re: AI cameras catch 297 drivers in three days in Cornwall

#28

Post by johnnyworker »

kyralis wrote: post #17
Verdex wrote: post #8

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” ― C. S.…

I wouldn't call "requiring drivers to not be using mobile phones" a "tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims". It's for the good of everyone else on the road, and, in the case of seatbelts, for the good of the rest of society that needs to deal with the burden of caring for unnecessary injuries due to failing to take such a basic precaution.

> I wouldn't call "requiring drivers to not be using mobile phones" a "tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims"

It's the mass surveillance that was called such.

> It's for the good of everyone else on the road

Nope, they too are subject to mass surveillance.

Re: AI cameras catch 297 drivers in three days in Cornwall

#29

Post by barbazoo »

I am looking to set up something like this in my neighborhood. I have a pretty good angle frpmy house. We live on a narrow street with parks on either side, a crosswalk, daycares, really a place where you want to pay attention and drive slowly. Yet every day I see people on their phones. I just don't get it. All it takes is one kid making a mistake and running on the road at the wrong moment. Happened couple of weeks ago at the crosswalk, luckily all three kids survived.

I'd like to set this up using off the shelf hardware to be able to demand more enforcement but also approach the people living here directly and if nothing helps. It's a heartbreaking situation that's waiting for something terrible to happen.

Edit: I'm a noob in some fields that are involved here (image classification, cameras, etc) so if anyone has a pointer for me, I'd greatly appreciate it

Re: AI cameras catch 297 drivers in three days in Cornwall

#30

Post by AndrewKemendo »

ggambetta wrote: post #16

I'm surprised by the early reactions here. Looking at the picture in the article, of a driver texting while the passenger holds the wheel (!!!), my first reaction is "OH YES PLEASE GET THESE INCREDIBLY IRRESPONSIBLE PEOPLE OFF THE STREETS ASAP". I don't want to die because some idiot is texting while driving. Whether these idiots are caught by a human looking attentively 24/7 or by a high-speed camera with an AI flag…

Not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing but I think the key complaint boils down to the level of granular invasiveness that this gives the government.

The fact that a govt couldn’t reasonably do this at this scale without computer vision being as advanced as it is just adds more AI skepticism flavor to the argument.

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