Here’s something interesting. Toyota has filed a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that describes a system where its car is equipped with cameras that are capable of recording traffic violations. The recordings are then sent to a server, likely to be reviewed by law enforcement before a nice summon is sent to the traffic offender.
Discovered by CarBuzz, the system, which is described as a “traffic violation identification system,” effectively makes the car a mobile traffic camera. Based on the patent document, the system appears to be designed to catch drivers running a red light.
The abstract is pretty lengthy but here’s roughly how the system works. When a car (described as the first vehicle) with the system approaches an intersection with traffic lights, the system detects the colour of the traffic light.
If it’s green, the system will monitor to see if there are any crossing or oncoming vehicles, and if they are running a red light or even speeding. Should a violation be found, the in-car camera will snap a photo and the system will pick up on the car’s details like the licence plate. All this information, including the location of the incident, will then be channelled to a server, and to the authorities, we presume.
For even more information, the system is also described as being able to interact with a second vehicle with the same system (or even existing infrastructure), likely using vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology, so the same incident can be photographed from two different angles. It isn’t mentioned which Toyota model might get this technology, but if it comes to fruition, we’ll have cars that can snitch on one another.
The post Toyota patents in-car camera system designed to catch drivers running red lights at intersections appeared first on Paul Tan's Automotive News.
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