New AI cameras playing 'I Spy' with highway drivers

Anyone else remember playing "I Spy" on family road trips?

If you do, you were probably raised in the pre-digital era. No phones or tablets meant your best entertainment option was looking out the window.

Now, motorists are part of a new game of "I Spy" — whether they like it or not.

Thanks to new AI-enabled cameras, police can now tell if you're speeding — while also peering inside your car for evidence of other infractions, such as using a mobile phone (or simply having one on your lap) or not wearing your seatbelt.

Welcome to the robo-nanny highway.

The cameras, developed by Austrailian company Acusensis, are already in use in a few cities in Great Britain and are set to be rolled out nationwide, despite objections from privacy advocate Big Brother Watch, which calls the cameras "intrusive and creepy.

Not to worry, say proponents of the cameras. Actual, human police will only have access to anonymized images. It's only once they decide to prosecute that those images will be connected to vehicle registrations.

In other words, if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear from our faceless AI overlords.

Other companies are scrambling to compete for surveillance state paydays. German company Jenoptik's Vector-SR cameras use radar to track two-lane traffic in both directions; since the cameras don't flash, drivers often have no idea they've been caught speeding.

After a trial in Manchester, Jenoptik's cameras are expected to be implemented across the U.K.

Redspeed International's Sentio cameras employ 4D radar technology, which can also check records to verify if a vehicle has proper registration and insurance. They operate at some 1,000 sites in Great Britain.

As for the U.S., nine states — Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin — have banned speed cameras altogether.

Some states that have allowed them are having second thoughts. RedSpeed cameras have been used to enforce school zone speed limits throughout Georgia since 2018. But critics say the cameras are prone to glitches and incentivize the private companies who operate them to issue as many citations as possible.

States now have access to billions in funding for speed cameras under Biden’s infrastructure law — the same law that has brought us the kill switches I've covered earlier.

The U.S. Department of Transportation thinks Americans should be grateful for all of the extra "attention" while driving. Accroding to its National Roadway Safety Strategy:

Speeding increases both the frequency and severity of crashes, yet it is both persistent and largely accepted as the norm amongst the traveling public ... Automated speed enforcement, if deployed equitably and applied appropriately to roads with the greatest risk of harm due to speeding, can provide significant safety benefits and save lives.

Your mileage, as they say, may vary. If you do have a problem with being spied on, now's the time to let your state, county, city, and town elected officials know.