Receiving a fixed fine of 135 euros even though you have committed no offense is what happened to several motorists.
They are white or gray and have been lining our roads for several years, but these new types of radars are today under fire: lawyers specializing in road law report that several motorists have been fined even though they had not committed any offense.
It all starts with the growth, in France, of carpooling lanes reserved, at certain times, for vehicles or motorcycles transporting at least two people, for taxis or even for collective public transport. Today, there are at least 49 in mainland France, extending from a few hundred meters to 28 kilometers, according to figures from the Center for Mobility Studies (Cerema).
The objective is to encourage users to travel in groups and thus reduce the number of vehicles on the road, and therefore traffic jams and pollution. But to ensure that these paths are respected, it is still necessary to be able to control them and verbalize them. Carpooling radars have been installed in Paris, Lyon, Strasbourg, Grenoble and in the North, reports the 40 million motorists association. Problem: some of them would be victims of a flaw.
Two models are mainly deployed in the territory: one uses thermal cameras to detect the number of passengers, the other photographs the passenger compartment using infrared devices and submits the images to artificial intelligence, responsible for identifying the silhouette and position of each occupant. It is this second model which seems to pose a problem due to a flaw in the detection of children.
For artificial intelligence, it seems difficult to identify a baby installed in a car seat or a cozy seat, to the point of not counting him as a passenger. As a result, parents traveling legally on the reserved lane receive a fine of 135 euros. Please note that a child, whatever their age, is recognized as a passenger and therefore allows movement in a carpool lane.
Also clarify that these are not automatic radars strictly speaking, but a computer-assisted video reporting system. Each infraction detected is verified and validated by a sworn agent before being retained. It is precisely this point that worries Pierre Chasseray, general delegate of 40 million motorists: “If the machine cannot see the inside of a car well, we naturally say that the agent cannot either, and that he therefore gives the benefit of the doubt to the motorist. But the proof is that this is not the case: motorists are wrongly fined.”
According to him, this situation casts doubt on the entire verification chain: “How can we not doubt the reliability of all this human verification? In my opinion, there is none. It’s assembly line work where we don’t really pay attention.”
