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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

#181

Post by Ekaros »

Noumenon72 wrote: post #100
gorgoiler wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s strange to see you advocate for 35mph. In many parts of Southern England I saw 20mph become the norm. It makes a lot of sense in terms of road safety as well as noise, and makes little to no difference to journey times.

20/35 is 4/7 the speed, and therefore it makes every trip take 7/4 as long. So you spend an additional 15 minutes on every 20-minute journey. You're rapidly going to waste more human lifetimes sitting in cars than you would ever save from driving slower.

I wonder what is the effect on climate change? Are we killing the planet by doing this? Should we instead up the speeds to closer of where cars are most efficient? Also need to remember that each fatality is good for environment...

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

#182

Post by jsiepkes »

Maybe I'm missing something but the "The Drive" article and the article they reference [1] talk about reading license plates up to half a mile (750m):

> read the license plates of speeding cars almost half a mile (750 m) away. In actuality, the TruCam II itself is technically capable of clocking plates up to almost a full mile (1.5 km)

But the actual product spec of the device [2] says:

> Quickly view license plate details and collect crystal-clear images up to +/- 150 meters away!

I don't see anywhere it can actually read a license plate half a mile away. It only says in the specsheet it can do a speed measurement about a mile away:

> Maximum Measurement: 1,200 meters/1,500 meters; extended range can be modified by request

[1] https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/353821/new-police-speed-c...

[2] https://www.lasertech.com/TruCAM-II-Speed-Enforcement-Laser....

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

#183

Post by Ekaros »

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…

Is the 13k purchase cost or life time cost? For life-time cost it doesn't sound too bad, considering maintenance and yearly or more certifications.

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

#184

Post by Ekaros »

BoorishBears wrote: post #18
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.

Shouldn't that be entire point of enforcing speed limits. Setting them up in dangerous locations where demographic in general is speeding?

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

#185

Post by Ekaros »

koolba wrote: post #15
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...

Average speed control. For every trip... Sounds doable already. Ofc, privacy implications are really fun when they start selling journey data of each car...

Now add facial recognition in mix on from CCTVs. And we are in whole new level of tracking everyone. Coming soon!

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

#186

Post by ehnto »

jazoom wrote: post #93
ehnto wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My state in Australia have heavy, heavy fines, even compared to the rest of Aus. It doesn't reduce the amount of poor driving but speeding at least is unambiguous. There is no grey area. If the speed limit is 60kmph then you will get booked for exceeding it by 5kmph, and the only reason you get that 5kmph leeway is to account for camera calibration and some grace for speedometer calibration. They would ping you at 61…

South Australia?

Yep! I got a fine for 15 over in Vic in an 80 to 60km zone transition and I was absolutely delighted by the fine. Only $230! Would have been $700ish in SA if I am not mistaken. That is ~$550 USD and 9mph over for anyone curious.

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

#187

Post by ehnto »

sjwright wrote: post #72
ehnto wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My state in Australia have heavy, heavy fines, even compared to the rest of Aus. It doesn't reduce the amount of poor driving but speeding at least is unambiguous. There is no grey area. If the speed limit is 60kmph then you will get booked for exceeding it by 5kmph, and the only reason you get that 5kmph leeway is to account for camera calibration and some grace for speedometer calibration. They would ping you at 61…

In Victoria they’ll ping you for going 62 km/h in a 60 zone.

The fines are at least a bit more reasonable there. Do you find them reasonable or are they different for locals?

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

#188

Post by craftinator »

Sebguer wrote: post #83
est31 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IDK about the UK, but in Germany street racers have killed many innocent bystanders, just for the crime of crossing the street at night. So yes please, enforce rules more strongly. In fact, even ambulances crash into each other every now and then at night, because they usually drive without their horns (technically then they aren't allowed to run red lights, only if it's been sounding for at least 15 seconds, but peo…

America, as well, even in broad daylight: https://www.fox13news.com/news/suspected-bayshore-street-rac...

Police killings are a bigger problem here.

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

#189

Post by bartread »

jl6 wrote: post #175
bArray wrote: post #77

> To the inevitable dismay of U.K. street racers who > primarily partake in their favorite illegal motorsport > after hours, the TruCam II also features night mode > whereas the first TruCam, which has already reportedly > been in use for the past six years, only worked during the > daytime. I think this really comes down to the letter of the law vs the spirit of it. To the spirit of the law, i.e. saving third-party…

Sorry, you’re totally wrong. The spirit of the law is not just to save third party lives. When you cause an accident, you drain society’s emergency response resources (and increase the premiums of those in your insurance pool). 35mph vs 30mph is a terrible example - this is the scenario where pedestrians and cyclists are most likely to be around. 75mph vs 70mph would have been a better example. Driving at night is mo…

> saying “I was only going a little over 30!” called speedo pedos, because it’s exactly like saying “she was only a little underage!”

I laughed at "speedo pedos", but is it though?

One of these crimes is clearly considerably more serious than the other, and legislators agree with me. That's why in UK law minor speeding offences attract a fine and points on your license[0], but no criminal record, whereas offences of pedophilia result in prison time, a criminal record, and addition on the sexual offenders register.

The line of thinking is superficially similar, the weight of the offence isn't, and we shouldn't trivialise serious offences by drawing false equivalences with those that are considerably less serious.

[0] This is generally the case, but if you accrue too many points you can of course lose your license. Similarly, more serious speeding offences attract more serious penalties, and may even result in jail time. There are plenty of other examples but, see, e.g., https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-34744.... The level of stupidity on display here is truly monumental.

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

#190

Post by antonzabirko »

jl6 wrote: post #175
bArray wrote: post #77

> To the inevitable dismay of U.K. street racers who > primarily partake in their favorite illegal motorsport > after hours, the TruCam II also features night mode > whereas the first TruCam, which has already reportedly > been in use for the past six years, only worked during the > daytime. I think this really comes down to the letter of the law vs the spirit of it. To the spirit of the law, i.e. saving third-party…

Sorry, you’re totally wrong. The spirit of the law is not just to save third party lives. When you cause an accident, you drain society’s emergency response resources (and increase the premiums of those in your insurance pool). 35mph vs 30mph is a terrible example - this is the scenario where pedestrians and cyclists are most likely to be around. 75mph vs 70mph would have been a better example. Driving at night is mo…

Food for thought: social budgets shouldn't determine the extent of your personal freedoms ala ambulances.
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