“AI Cameras vs the Over-smart Detector Apps”: A Desi Jugaad of Indian Motorists to evade fines!
We live in a technology-revolutionary world where Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become ‘our new reality’. Today AI is not only limited to the tech sector but has conquered the world with its ultra-modern creations into multidimensional sectors with the variant services it provides.
As India is learning advanced AI technology on the other side, some major loopholes are deeply rooted within the nation, barricading AI technology in Indian society.
NAYA BHARAT ‘Smart roads’ with AI-powered cameras:
When it comes to the regulation of traffic rules, the citizens of developing countries like India still lack road ethics, which in turn has made road casualties a common concern of death rates for the nation.
According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) report, India experienced 461,312 road accidents in 2022. These accidents resulted in 168,491 fatalities and left 443,366 individuals injured. These figures indicate an alarming increase of 11.9% in accidents, 9.4% in deaths, and 15.3% in injuries compared to the previous year.
So, to regulate road fatalities, India has brought AI-powered cameras to make 'Smart road safety systems'. These AI cameras' major function is to supervise motorists violating motor rules and are provided with challans directly on the registered mobiles of vehicle owners.
AI: Cameras also keep an eye on:
a) AI algorithms that can analyze live camera feeds to detect jams.
b) Accidents, or any casual events.
c) Motorist flouting traffic rules
d) End-life – of vehicles and their license plate.
e) Pollution certificate violation.
f) Overload vehicles and detect any types of illegal activities committed on the freeways.
One of the first in Maharashtra, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway uses an AI-powered Intelligent Traffic Management system. Besides over-speeding, AI driving technology would help identify drivers using mobile phones and spot drivers not keeping their hands on the steering wheel while driving.
The outcomes of the AI system were quite visible in Kerala after enabling AI cameras, “which were switched on across the state last June, and have detected a whopping 32 lakh traffic rule violations in less than six months".
The motor vehicle department (MVD) accessed data revealing that 32,88,657 challans were issued to motorists for violations captured by 726 AI cameras across the state between June 5 and December 26, 2023. The data indicates that an average of 18,000 violations were detected daily by the cameras. (Source: The New Indian Express)
Camera Detector Apps:
The camera detector app is specially made for motorists by providing them with real-time speed camera alerts, a feature that positions it prominently among driving apps. It allows drivers to adjust speed and avoid interruptions throughout their journey.
Volt camera detector app, Radar Bot detector app, and Waze app are some of the apps that in common provide features that:
a) Free apps with limited features and premium options
b) Helps to deal with traffic and speed camera alerts of AI Cameras
c) Provides real-time traffic updates
d) Alerts the users beforehand about speed limits to bypass fines.
By using these detector apps, drivers can avoid getting caught by speed cameras and continue driving without abiding by traffic rules such as slowing down, wearing seat belts, and refraining from using cellphones. This behavior violates traffic rules and compromises safety.
Detector apps escaping the eyes of 'AI – Cameras':
Doing Jugaad (easily finding a way out) is something that Indians love to do, here how some reports showing how Indian motorists escaped fines:
a) "The Bengaluru – Mysuru Highway case": Bengaluru- Mysuru- Highway (National Highway 275) operating since 2023, has witnessed innumerable accidents. To counter the issue the authorities have installed 60 AI-powered speed cameras on the highways with a strict speed limit of 100km/hr. Whereas, the over-speeding culprits were given Rs 1000 challan, and the drivers breaking other types of road rules were registered with FIR.
However, it was noticed that the motorists were using apps like Radar Bot which would detect the speed cameras in advance on Bangalore’s highly accessed-controlled highway to skip fines and a First Information Report (FIR).
b) "Mumbai Pune Express Highway case": Similar cases in the Mumbai -Pune Express Highway were found where people used detector apps to avoid challans. As these applications display the locations of speed CCTV cameras and seize vehicles on roads, according to a senior Highway State Police “Drivers reduce their speed to the appropriate speed limits as they approach these locations. The speed limit on the expressway is 80 km/h”.
According to HSP data, there were 28 victims and 1,54,655 speeding cases in 2022. In 2023, there were 26 victims and 1,48,939 speeding cases.
Accessibility of Detector apps:
One of the major reasons that motorists choose to take an easy path and evade fines and not follow the protocols for road safety measures is that these Camera Detector apps are easily accessible and are free to download from anywhere.
Bharat Kalaskar, deputy transport commissioner of road safety, of the Maharashtra transport department, said that the cheat apps could be dangerous. “These apps are not authentic and need not necessarily indicate the presence of CCTVs at a particular location,” he said. “Moreover, there is every possibility of accidents occurring, as motorists slam their brakes to slow down which could startle the vehicle driver behind them. We urge motorists to avoid using such mobile apps.”
Reasons for Violating Road Rules?
a) Indians believe in "Collectivist Ideology": Due to this, most of the social norms and opinions that Indians follow are based upon their community thoughts and not their individual opinions, just like how Indians (in some particular areas) don’t wear helmets while driving because the majority of motorists don’t find it important to wear helmets, and this also implies how much they aren’t aware of the road rules and often break them.
b) Pluralist Ignorance: “The reasons for rule flouting in developing nations is that citizens of these countries do not have a strong foundational belief that laws should be followed, and they think that others in their societies harbor similar beliefs. The psychological idea of pluralist ignorance is also at play here, where people, whose private preferences are at odds with the social norms, wrongly believe that the majority of the people have private preferences to maintain the status quo (regardless of whether the status quo is good or bad in social terms)”. (The Print, 18 January, 2022)
How can this be prevented?
a) AI cameras would not only monitor our safety but would also keep the motorists in a system and make an accident-prone journey!
b) AI cameras should be installed at a lesser distance so Motorists won’t get to use detector apps.
In India, it has just become a threat of paying fines with no real care about traffic guidelines as a safety measure. Therefore, the initiative should be not on inflicting fear to pay fines but to make aware about the road safety measures to the motorists.
Comment below on your views on “How AI cameras are beneficial and how Detector apps would be unethical for breaking the Road rules?”