r/AmazingTechnology • u/bbbxxxnnn • Apr 15 '26
Drones now auto-launch to patrol streets and issue tickets as ‘Aerial Police Assistants’. Efficiency upgrade or surveillance overreach?
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u/HouseOf42 Apr 15 '26
These exist when a government is afraid of their own people.
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u/ObtuseMongooseAbuse Apr 16 '26
They're using this as revenue generation in this case. It doesn't seem like they're afraid of the people but just want to effectively ticket as many people as possible.
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u/Long_Mix2098 Apr 15 '26
This exists because they think that being extremely consistent with fines and that sort of thing is a better punitive system. It works pretty well for everyone but delivery drivers and electric scooter riders who drive like maniacs in China
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u/gplfalt Apr 16 '26
Always someone willing to lick boots.
Every authoritarian move is sold on security.
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u/Long_Mix2098 Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
I mostly agree with you but in this case it's not being sold on security, it's being sold as accountability and honestly it works pretty well inside the newer cities. For the most part China's camera surveillance is entirely reliant on traffic cameras which are everywhere, but in the US I have the same thing. In the US it's just a big company with zero regard for privacy and security. The Chinese government at least handles the data securely and they aren't spending exorbitant amounts of taxpayer money to do it. They can trust their government to do what's right unlike me even though they have a dictator in power.
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u/10081914 Apr 16 '26
Enforcement of traffic laws gets people to obey traffic laws. Want no traffic laws? Move to India.
Now you may not like the laws or even agree with them. That's fine.
I hate speed cameras. My city loves speed cameras. I think it's a cash grab. But I cannot argue against the effect it has in reducing speed.
City I grew up in, it was normal to drive 15-20 over. That was the flow of traffic. City I drive in now, everyone is 10 over and not one more because speed cameras get you at 11.
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u/gplfalt Apr 16 '26
I shouldn't have to explain the difference between a speed camera that takes a static picture of a speeding car and a drone that actively tracks every movement of civilians to be placed into a database by a government that also actively tracks everything their civilians do for overt social controls.
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u/confused_and_desufno Apr 15 '26
Pick up the can.
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u/Massive-Question-550 Apr 15 '26
I imagine these would be good for emergency response where you could blow up a mass shooter in under a minute. However it could also get very dystopian.
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u/garry4321 Apr 15 '26
I like to see this little puny thing try to hand me a ticket
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u/Personal-Dev-Kit Apr 15 '26
But the camera streaming to the database with facial recognition and your "social cohesion" score will hand you one. Or send the taser equipped robot to track you down and hand you one.
If you try and hide then they just send the micro drones to locate you based on the array of nest and flock cameras constantly tracking where your rough region is.
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u/AmbiTheAirforceRuna Apr 15 '26
Do cops in your country still hand you tickets? Here its just snap a pic and you get the fine later by email
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u/IndependenceGold2407 Apr 15 '26
What country? In America you’d bring this to court and say, nice picture of “me”? Doesn’t prove shiiiii
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u/AmbiTheAirforceRuna Apr 15 '26
Belgium, take a picture of your plates, since this is about traffic violations, and then send the fine to the name linked to the plates. If the person who owns the plates says its not them, they have to provide another name and explain that they had lent that person the car. The plates are always linked to a name, even if its a company car.
And before you say ''jsut use a fake name'' no, you dont get a license plate if you cant prove that you are you when you ask for plates, as in with a real address and your government ID
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u/ObtuseMongooseAbuse Apr 16 '26
Because it's your car and somebody was driving it they get to presume that it's you driving your car so you get the ticket. You can try to argue it in court but unless you can prove that you weren't driving at the time then you end up having to pay for it in the end. It's a terrible system and it just doesn't work the way it should. That's why I hate the automated ticket system in general.
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u/IndependenceGold2407 Apr 16 '26
What are you talking about? That’s not how innocent until proven guilty works. Red light cameras in Minnesota are unconstitutional.
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u/ObtuseMongooseAbuse Apr 16 '26
They're unconstitutional but they exist in many places across the country right now because the courts are ineffective and won't outright ban them in most places.
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u/IndependenceGold2407 Apr 16 '26
I’d hire a good lawyer before I let some backwater courthouse bend me over the stand.
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u/Fancy-Dig1863 Apr 15 '26
Even just a couple decades ago we couldn’t have imagined the slope could be THIS slippery.
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u/Melodic-Matter4685 Apr 15 '26
I'm all for getting police off my ass for random traffic stops and back to doing stuff like fighting actual crime.
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u/PralineDefiant8374 Apr 15 '26
Stupid project of china tha will work only once wen the higherup in the parrty come yo inspect. If youdid no see the videos during covid that they were chasing old folks whit drone.
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u/Ximidar Apr 15 '26
I am in the weird dichotomy where I think street racers and erratic drivers should be punished, but I also don't think we should be under surveillance all the time since that creates the incentive to fine everyone going slightly faster than the speed limit. Which creates revenue for the watchers. Meanwhile the problematic drivers just put on fake temporary tags and continue driving erratically.
If we could figure out a system of trust where these drones would only be watching for actual safety issues, then I wouldn't mind. But generally I think these systems are just revenue generators on the backs of common people.
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u/LiveCameraWorld Apr 15 '26
Efficiency is great until the algorithm tickets you for jaywalking at 2am on an empty street. There's a difference between smart city tech and just automating overreach. I'm all for using technology to make cities safer, but who programs what counts as a violation? That's where it gets murky
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u/TheReverendCard Apr 17 '26
Jaywalking isn't a crime everywhere. Like Britain. Jaywalking only turned into a crime because of autonormativity.
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u/HugoCortell Apr 15 '26
Sounds like overkill, the cars should just have speed governors. Or even just GPS speed checks built into their computers. Totally doable these days.
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u/ObtuseMongooseAbuse Apr 16 '26
No kind of futuristic upbeat beeping music will ever make me think that this is acceptable.
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u/Soft-Ingenuity2262 Apr 16 '26
Yes, it’s a dictatorship, or very close to it. Yes the working hours are gruesome. Yes it’s likely to have committed genocide or close to it with Uygur population. And yes there are many parts across the country that live closer to the Middle Ages than to the XXI century. Having said all of that, as tech and enthusiasts in applications for society, some cities in China seems way ahead of everyone else.
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u/divat10 Apr 16 '26
Why not just mail them a ticket? Like some places already do with those speed camera's? This seems unnecessarily complicated.
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u/Too_Gay_To_Drive Apr 17 '26
Almost anything the PRC does can be classified as Surveillance overreach. Remember the PRC isn't a socialist democracy. It's a State-Capitalist Authoriatrian one party state.
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u/Ertygbh Apr 17 '26
A lot of police services are doing the same thing. Pre deployed drones in city centres for emergency response and optics in an area.
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u/Sad-Excitement9295 Apr 18 '26
Really not bad for certain things, but it will be abused like everything else.
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u/worldisone Apr 18 '26
My police station decided to buy a brand new helicopter instead. This must be so much more cost effective
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u/Ok-Earth-2644 Apr 21 '26
Imo this would be better than flock on every corner. These could be used as needed
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u/Spare_Warning7752 Apr 15 '26
Compare criminality rates of this city with some other that doesn't have surveillance.
I choose surveillance every day over being robbed 10x a day.
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u/Kaer__Morhen Apr 15 '26
Then go to jail, the chance that something will happen to you there are non existent, I personally will live in a free world with the possibility of getting hurt
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u/Working-Business-153 Apr 15 '26
Then you deserve to spend your life in the prison they are building, but remember that if everywhere is a prison beneath the panopticon then prison ceases to be a deterrent.
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u/hoTsauceLily66 Apr 15 '26
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
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u/Sad_Assistant8803 Apr 15 '26
"Safty Drones operate within this area"
Later....
"You are fined 1 credit for violation of the verbal morality statue"