New camera’s will be rolled out in the UK, which can zoom in and see you behind the wheel.

Testing is being conducted for the cameras which will be able to see in your vehicle, catching motorists who use their mobile phone or don’t wear a seat belt.

Ten police forces will be testing out the new technology.

The new equipment is mounted to a vehicle or trailer and has multiple cameras. The cameras offer multiply views from all different angles of the driver and the passengers.

The idea is to fix the cameras to gantries similar to the existing speed cameras.

Durham, Greater Manchester, Humberside, Staffordshire, West Mercia, Northamptonshire, Wiltshire, Norfolk, Thames Valley and Sussex Police forces are set to be trialing out the cameras for 12 months.

“Working with our police partners we want to reduce such dangerous driving and reduce the risks posed to both the drivers and other people. We believe that using technology like this will make people seriously consider their driving behaviour.

“We will continue to invest in technology that could help make sure everyone using our roads gets home safe and well.”

AI technology will be used to process images taken by the new technology, anything considered to be a breach of safety will be passed over to the relevant police force. Fines for such those who commit an offence, such as not wearing a seat belt whilst driving could be as high as £500 and could also be given penalty points in addition. The more serious offence of using your mobile phone could see users fined up to £1,000 and issued up to 6 penalty points.

The technology was first trialled by National Highways back in 2021 with any offenders only sent warning letters.

Dr Jamie Uff, Technical Director at AECOM, explained: “Our work to date has highlighted the scale of the issue, has shown that technology can play a valuable role, and that there is much still to be understood about driver behaviour given the new insights gained.”

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A survey recently conducted, disclosed that a huge percentage of drivers find the parking apps to be a nuisance. The survey revealed that a staggering 83% of the 1387 people who partook, stated they would rather use a pay and display machine than downloading and creating an account for the many different apps used today.

The survey, from Autocar, discovered that drivers were concerned about online fraud and that some apps were overly complicated.

A small percentage expressed they would use parking apps as a  preferred way of payment, stating it was more convenient to pay for parking at a push of a button on their mobiles.

You can view the full survey findings here.

Motorists in the UK have a selection of 30 different parking apps, which will need to be downloaded to park in the chosen areas. Each of them will need an account and access to personal details in order to pay for parking. Each of them will need an account and access to personal details in order to pay for parking, which is a factor that some drivers find off putting or confusing, others have expressed they worry that submitting all their details could lead to cases of fraud.

Another concern is that phones aren’t always 100% reliable, a loss of internet service or a low battery could be what throws a spanner in the works.

In response to the growing concerns around parking, in October 2023 Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Transport Secretary Mark Harper revealed plans for a ‘national parking platform’.

The aim is to streamline this process of paying for parking, where drivers can use one system – no matter where they are leaving their vehicle.

At the time of the announcement, the Government stated that it will be live by Autumn 2024.

Could this be the end for the pay and display system? We asked some Instructors and Training Instructors their thoughts, the majority agreed it was convenient to pay via the app but the app also comes along with its own disadvantages. Of course it eradicates the scramble looking for change to pay, but also does need to be more reliable.

Kerry at Britannia said;

I do like the convenience of the App, providing it works when you need it to. There has been some occasions i have clicked on the App for it to have completely logged me out, which therefore takes more time to re log in and pay than if i would use the old simple method of pay and display. But when i had small children in the car this would of been a godsend to be able to do it all from my vehicle.

 

 

 

 

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