Some public transportation buses in California are driving around with a new artificial intelligence parking official of sorts. Over the course of a 45-day pilot program, it spotted over 500 violations that were worthy of a parking ticket. The system could end up improving traffic flow as well as public transportation efficiency.
Los Angeles is full of people and their cars so it’s no wonder that some of them park their cars in places where they’re not allowed to. For bus drivers, sometimes those cars end up in bus lanes or in front of bus stops, which slows down public transportation. This new initiative aims to dramatically reduce illegal parking through nearly automatic penalties.
The system works as part of a joint partnership between Hayden AI and the City of Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus. A camera system on the bus itself records both the bus lane and the bus stops along with cars that are in each. It can then send data about those vehicles to the city.
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Speaking to KTLA, Charlie Territo with Hayden AI said that “Our cameras are able to be accurate to within 10 centimeters, we know if a vehicle is moving or whether a vehicle is stopped.” According to him, his team doesn’t make any more or less based on how many violations it catches despite the fact that each parking ticket could be worth nearly $300. Officials in the state say that revenue isn’t the key metric here.
“Our goal is not to issue citations, but our goal is to change behavior,” said Robert McCall who works for the city of Santa Monica. Automatically issuing parking tickets to violators could certainly do that. A similar system is already in place in New York and another is about to begin in Washington, D.C.
“Improving public transportation is one of the best things we can do to improve sustainability,” said Chris Carson, CEO and co-founder of Hayden AI. “Our goal is to provide Big Blue Bus with the data they need to better understand the true impact that parking in bus lanes and at bus stops has on the thousands of riders who rely on public transit every day.”
For the time being, Santa Monica hasn’t decided if it’ll implement this tech to the point that it actually hands out tickets.
