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New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

thedrive.com

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Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#11

Post by jdavis703 »

mberning wrote: post #4

I find it odd that there is so much emphasis on enforcement of speed limits. Studies have shown that speed limits above and below the prevailing speed of most drivers is a much higher risk factor that raw speed. And then there are other behaviors such as using a cell phone and driving that may be criminalized, but do not seem to receive such fervent enforcement.

The fatality risk for people outside of cars (e.g. pedestrians, bicyclists, kids playing in the street) is directly correlated with speed: https://aaafoundation.org/impact-speed-pedestrians-risk-seve....

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#12

Post by peteretep »

plasticchris wrote: post #5
mberning wrote: post #4

I find it odd that there is so much emphasis on enforcement of speed limits. Studies have shown that speed limits above and below the prevailing speed of most drivers is a much higher risk factor that raw speed. And then there are other behaviors such as using a cell phone and driving that may be criminalized, but do not seem to receive such fervent enforcement.

It is simple: speeding tickets are a revenue stream.

In the UK it goes into central government coffers, not to police.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#13

Post by Spooky23 »

mberning wrote: post #4

I find it odd that there is so much emphasis on enforcement of speed limits. Studies have shown that speed limits above and below the prevailing speed of most drivers is a much higher risk factor that raw speed. And then there are other behaviors such as using a cell phone and driving that may be criminalized, but do not seem to receive such fervent enforcement.

Speed kills. It’s fairly easy to enforce as well.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#14

Post by xnyan »

rconti wrote: post #3

I'm curious about the context of the $13,000 price tag. Is this a slight upcharge? Or an order of magnitude? I'm what the Brits might call a "keen motorist", but as someone who considers speed enforcement a necessary evil, there's a world of difference between paying a bit more for much better tech, versus way more. If this costs 4x what a normal radar gun costs, one must ask "what is the problem we're solving", and…

If it were just the features (time of flight and image recognition), probably not 13k. I’m not an expert in police gear, but there are likely performance standards that the manufacturer has to prove so that the readings can stand up in court. That plus the durability required and range of operating conditions it has to perform in, and the fact that it’s a fault niche device will increase the cost. 13k still might be too high, but I wonder if an autoblog knows what a police department actually pays for it.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#15

Post by koolba »

lacker wrote: post #7

Eventually cameras from orbit will be able to read license plates in real time and detect all speeding vehicles.

The angle of the plate wouldn’t allow it.

What they can do is feed the movements of all vehicles into a big data platform and infer which car went where...

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#16

Post by colejohnson66 »

lacker wrote: post #7

Eventually cameras from orbit will be able to read license plates in real time and detect all speeding vehicles.

Just waiting for the Speed Enforced by Satellite highway signs... But in seriousness, the angle wouldn’t work.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#17

Post by ISL »

I once saw speed cameras as "un-sporting" until travelling elsewhere in the world where they are commonplace.

In those countries, it seems like everyone just drives the speed limit.

If the point of speed enforcement is to, you know, ensure that everyone is going the speed limit or slower, they're awesome. Norway's system of timed speed cameras are particularly wonderful -- they simply photograph a car and then photograph it again many kilometers later. If you get there too soon, then at some point, you must have been speeding.

These systems are safer for police and drivers as there are no traffic stops for speeding. Yes, the bill goes to the car owner, but if you're loaning your car out to someone who speeds, at least some of the culpability falls on you.

Can speed cameras be used as a revenue source? Yes. It is reasonable to place requirements on the determination of speed-limits and camera-locations to prevent abuse. Beyond that, if you don't want to get a fine, don't speed.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#18

Post by BoorishBears »

drusepth wrote: post #2

The less visibility police personally have on the car they're doing the reading on (e.g. half-mile away & at night), the less they're capable of introducing human bias (e.g. profiling) into who they scan and who they don't. Seems like a win-win for enforcing the law and doing so equally on everyone.

I'm for automated speed enforcement (even as someone who speeds), but attaching it to a human undoes a lot of the good.

Nothing is stopping the cop for going to a place with a certain demographic and setting up shop.

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#19

Post by sriram_malhar »

alanbernstein wrote: post #6

No info about the tech in this article, but from the video I guess it's just a very long telephoto lens? No fancy letter-detection radar algorithms or anything like that?

It is likely a more powerful LIDAR, a laser with a very narrow beam width (but weak enough to not affect eyesight). Combine this with retroreflective paint on the license/number plate to get both speed and the number.

Here is some info about building a lidar detector.

https://www.ibiblio.org/rdu/usenet-arc/sub00243/msg00000.htm...

Re: New UK police speed gun can read license plates from half a mile away at night

#20

Post by BelenusMordred »

lacker wrote: post #7

Eventually cameras from orbit will be able to read license plates in real time and detect all speeding vehicles.

Everyone travels with a personal tracking device, except for those who choose to opt out of modern society, what you present as a future threat can be easily done today with little effort by law enforcement.

It's trivial to determine the speed a person travels down a highway from GSM timing advance data. In most countries on Earth this metadata is mandated to be held for a certain amount of time by service providers.

Like all laws, it's selective, and there's only so many prosecutors, the moment they even try to charge the first person is when that government mandated tracking device in your pocket starts losing its value.

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