AI photography under the microscope
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (378429)
Rockingham, Australia
April 25, 2026 6:30am CST
Six months ago, western Australia introduced fancy new AI-assisted traffic cameras which see into the front of the car. They are supposed to pick up if people aren’t wearing seatbelts or are wearing them incorrectly, if the driver is on the phone or otherwise distracted or maybe if there is a child on the passenger’s lap.
It seems these cameras did their job almost too well and now around 2,000 fines totalling $1.1 million have been withdrawn. One driver had an autistic person in the passenger seat. While the passenger started out with the seatbelt correctly fastened, on the journey they slipped the seatbelt off the shoulder and under the arm. The driver defended himself in court saying it would have been dangerous if he’d attempted to do anything about it while driving.
It’s good they’re applying a bit of commonsense to some of these convictions.
The photo is mine of two old cars that would never have had seatbelts.
14 people like this
13 responses
@snowy22315 (206521)
• United States
16h
Big brother at it's finest. That is sophisticated though..here there are just traffic cams and license plate readers.
3 people like this
@DaddyEvil (172681)
• United States
16h
Years ago, while I was still working at Walmart, the city of Republic 20 miles away from our home, installed traffic cameras that could see into the front seats of cars, to take pictures of the person driving the car when it was speeding. The public backlashed that so hard that the city removed all the traffic cameras.
Two twins kept suing the city because one of them never drove their car and the other one claimed they'd never gone over the speed limit. The judge ruled the city had to have a positive ID of the person driving the car before the city could send them tickets in the mail. The twins kept winning their cases. A police officer must stop the car and get a positive ID before the twins could be ticketed.
3 people like this
@FourWalls (85410)
• United States
3h
I’m from the age where my seat belt was Mom’s right arm while I was standing in the front seat next to her!
@wolfgirl569 (133443)
• Marion, Ohio
15h
That is getting too nosy for my liking. Big brother doesn't need to see everything
2 people like this
@crossbones27 (52647)
• Mojave, California
9h
Sounds scary, I guess I better not pick my nose in public anymore. 
@rebelann (116941)
• El Paso, Texas
5h
I doubt either one of those ever went any faster than 20 mph so a seatbelt probably wasn't necessary ..... yet.
@LooeyVille (59)
• United States
15h
I didn't realize that law enforcement was using that type of technology.
@Ineeddentures (29498)
•
7h
The passenger should still have a seat belt on correctly
When the driver noticed it was not on correctly, he should have pulled over to a safe place and put the seat belt back on the passenger properly
These cameras are good.
They have caught loads of people here on phones whilst driving
Take their driving license away, using a mobike phone whilst driving is just not on.
