BENGALURU: A wave of traffic fines for seatbelt violations has swept Bengaluru, Mysuru and other parts of Karnataka, with many drivers claiming that they were wrongly penalised by AI surveillance cameras. Several drivers have taken to social media to express their frustration over receiving challans, despite wearing seatbelts. The challans were issued by the traffic department’s new artificial intelligence system, which monitors compliance with safety regulations independently with the help of latest technology.
A Facebook profile, going by the name siliconcity.bengaluru, complained, “Bengaluru traffic AI cameras are issuing false seatbelt ticket challans. The false tickets are due to the similar colour of the seatbelt and shirt or coat one is wearing. The issue arises from the cameras’ inability to distinguish the two.”
Another netizen, Prithvi Chandrashekar, said, “I request people driving cars in Mysuru to check their challans. After seeing this post, I checked my car’s challan and, to my surprise, even I have a challan for not wearing a seatbelt from ITMS Udaya Ravi Road (AI-based).
‘Working to make AI surveillance tech better’
“I never drive a car without a seatbelt, and if I try to, my car will not allow me to drive. I believe it’s a false challan and request everyone to check theirs. If many are getting such challans, it has to be brought to the attention of the authorities and action should be taken,” Prithvi Chandrashekar said.
Mysuru Police Commissioner Seema Ladkar acknowledged the problem, saying, “We are aware of this, and are working on it. ADGP Alok Kumar, who heads traffic and road safety division, is also aware of this. We are working to make the technology better, and the R&D is going on.”
Bengaluru’s Additional Traffic Commissioner N Anucheth said, “As far as Bengaluru city is concerned, this issue has been sorted out since December 2023. The issue was with AI technology. Now we manually validate each violation image raised by AI cameras and then issue the challan only if found correct.
The falsely identified images are fed back to the system to improve AI. We have reached 99.99% accuracy. Some human errors may still creep in. The system started in December 2022, so the challans raised between December 2022 and November 2023 are being revalidated automatically, and all such wrongly raised challans are being deleted automatically.”
Citizens who have challans issued wrongly and want to cancel them can mail automationpubbcp@ksp.gov.in or bangaloretrafficpolice@gmail.com, Anucheth said. They can also visit the BTP Traffic Management Centre, nearest traffic police station or even download the KSP app because it has an option to view a challan and raise a dispute, Anucheth said.
Soon, safety harness must to carry kids on bikes
The transport department is working on implementing the mandatory safety harness rule for those riding with children above nine months and within four years on two-wheelers. In the first step, officials have started creating awareness on importance of safety harnesses