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Comment by saagarjha | Hacker News Reader

How do these work? I’m sure that with the angles and tinted windows involved, these cameras would need to be quite invasive to be effective…

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> The high-definition cameras use artificial intelligence to spot drivers, regardless of the weather or the time of day.

> The portable versions will be mounted on trailers and operate across the state.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-22/mobile-phone-detectio...

This article has an image

> tinted windows involved

In Australia tinting is not allowed on the front windshild, and front side windows must be at least 35% transparent (according to https://www.polyfilm.com.au/window-tinting-laws ) which is quite enough for modern cameras during the day.

Who cares how invasive these are. A car is being driven in a public setting. There should be zero expectation of privacy. And I say this as a driver.

How can this camera be more invasive than a red light camera?

Red light cameras aren’t designed to look into your car.

They are when they’re designed to also identify the driver.

Why would such a thing be necessary when you can just grab the plates instead?

In some countries (such as Germany) you have to be able to identify the driver in order to impose a fine. They actually send you a print-out of the picture along with the fine

Then it’s still the same as a red light camera

To prove that the owner of the car or at least the person registered to it really was driving the car at the time.

Now full disclosure, I don’t drive, but of my buddies that do, one received a ticket last year here in California in the mail that had a picture which clearly identified her (and me, I was in the passenger seat). If she fought the ticket, presumably they could pull this photo out and show that yes, she was in fact driving her own car. She didn’t fight the ticket.

There was a political scandal in the UK when a politicians wife took points on her license for him, to prevent him getting a driving ban. The camera that clocked him only checked numberplates. She grassed on him a decade later and went to jail for her trouble.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/mar/11/chris-huhne-vicky...

If you want to assign driving record penalties to the driver of the vehicle, you need to identify the driver. If it's like a parking ticket, you can do that against the car.

It shouldn't be this way. The owner should be responsible, and it is up to them to find the driver.

Then you get stuff like one of the other comments linked, where people get someone else to take the punishment for them.

Because the liability falls on the driver, and that is not always the owner of the car.

Because then the owner denies driving it. Now, in some states they handle this sensibly, and the driver has to get the "driver" to own up or they are responsible. In other states, it is on the state to find the driver.

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