I’m surprised governments haven’t already made an official app to “democratize” traffic enforcement.

- take a video of someone double parking: fine

- take a video of someone idling their car too long: fine

Once it gets a critical mass (I’d estimate a relatively small usage around 15%) I’d imagine traffic law breaking will go away for the most part.

The inability to know when you might be recorded and consequently fined would lead most to simply stop doing it.

The only other necessary thing would be to increase fines to be more in line with the ability to pay to be a useful deterrent.

Add in a kickback of say 30% to those who report once fine is collected and you’ve just created a highly motivated, distributed and invisible traffic law enforcement apparatus.

There are some technical challenges to be solved, though.

It's not admissible as evidence so pointless really.

Police equipment is certified as calibrated regularly to prove its accurate. Your phone footage could be anything and no AI is going to change that.

Of late I have started carrying my phone with video recording already activated on my weekend walks due to the actions of a few motorists, especially down narrow roads where there is barely room for a car and pedestrian to pass safely.

Seeing a car approach at an unreasonable speed I hold up my phone and, miraculously, the car suddenly slows down and makes room for me to pass. Quite impressive really.

I wonder if this is going to result in a Cobra Effect but with deepfakes instead.