More details of this excellent new scheme.

Our story earlier this week about a new smartphone app that uses AI to analyse video and enables users to report drivers suspected of speeding to the police for potential enforcement attracted a lot of comments, including from Rod King of the road safety campaign 20’s Plenty For Us, whose volunteers are trialling the app.

Among the concerns raised about the Speedcam Anywhere app were whether police would have the desire, let alone the resources, to deal with such submissions, as well as whether there are evidential issues related to the footage captured.

However, replying to road.cc readers in the comments to the original article, King said he believes the technology “will be transformational” and that he has “every confidence that it will make a huge difference” to road safety.

He said: “I think that it’s fair to say that the forces aren't expecting this. So don't expect systems to automatically accommodate the new technology.

“I am confident that it will be accepted, but we do have a very patchy set of constabularies on enforcement, especially ‘where people are’. There will be pioneer forces who will see the benefits and others who are still only migrating from Gatso [speed cameras].

“The point about uploading video and report is that the report saves analysing the video. But if challenged the video can be manually analysed also. It’s all a lot more straightforward than analysing most dashcam or headcam submissions.

“It will be transformational. But some forces may take longer to transform than others. I have every confidence that it will make a huge difference.”

We’ll be contacting the app’s developers for a response to a number of concerns raised by road.cc readers, as well as getting some thoughts on it from road safety professionals.

In the meantime, 20’s Plenty For Us director King gives more detail about the app and how it functions, which will hopefully answer a number of the questions raised in the comments. He has also highlighted that more information is available on the organisation’s website (link is external).

King said:

Most speed detection ‘devices’ use a function within the device to measure the speed of a vehicle. If it’s radio or laser, it involves measuring the speed by bouncing a wave off the oncoming vehicle and measuring the doppler effect produced because the vehicle is moving.

One issue with this is that you can rarely use the device in the path of the vehicle and therefore you do not measure the vehicle speed as it is reduced by the cosine from the sight line to the direction of travel. Because the device independently assesses the speed it needs calibration.

Speedcam Anywhere is different. It is not the smartphone that measures the speed. The app buffers a video image and when you press the shutter as a car is passing and centred on the screen it selects a video snip of the previous one second and next one second. This is then uploaded to the cloud together with GPS location. The server then:

Uses ANPR to look up the vehicle make, model and year;
Looks up the wheelbase (WB) of the vehicle;
Uses AI to analyse the video and locate the wheel centres;
Finds the still in the video clip where the front wheel passes a point on the road. Takes its time stamp (T1);
Finds the still in the video clip where the rear wheel passes the same point on the road. Takes its time stamp (T2);
Uses the simple physics calculation that v=s/t ie v= WB/(T2-T1);
Looks up the mapping to find the speed limit at that point;
Creates a two second video clip overlaid with the time stamps;
Creates an A4 report showing location, picture of vehicle, its details, location, speed and speed limit as well as time stamped stills used;
Sends a summary back to the app.

The app user is then able to download the report and video clip for upload to the police dashcam. Here police can (if they wish) examine the video to verify the speed of the vehicle.

Because the wheels always follow the direction of the vehicle the angle of approach does not matter. You can use the app with oncoming or departing cars as long as you can see the number plate. A line of sight with one edge of the image perpendicular to the road has been found to work best.

The requirement for a Home Office Type Approved device only exists for speeding convictions. It is an anomaly that presumes that the speed is measured on the device. Where it is a video, precedents have already been set whereby drivers have been prosecuted for careless or dangerous driving based on video evidence. This includes verifying speeding.

However, this does require expert analysis and often a measurement of road markings or scenery to provide a fixed distance to measure the travel time over. Speedcam Anywhere negates the need for this expert analysis by using AI and the wheelbase of the car as a fixed distance.

Section 59 Anti-Social Driving offence only requires reasonable grounds for believing that a motor vehicle is being used on any occasion in a manner which contravenes section 3 or section 34 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (careless and inconsiderate driving and prohibition of off-road driving) and is causing, or is likely to cause alarm, distress or annoyance to members of the public. Hence under "reasonable grounds" a Section 59 offence can be registered.

Speedcam Anywhere could gain Type Approval for the ‘process’ rather than the ‘device’. In which case police and members of the public may use it for enforcement of speeding offence directly.

This really does use a great combination of modern databases, smart analysis and AI to provide an accurate measurement of speed using a smartphone.. It’s not only a great invention but also a huge step forward for enforcement. When driving in the future then, any pedestrian you see could be a Speedcam Anywhere pedestrian. Especially in urban and village settings drivers should be wary of blasting through those public places between buildings that we call streets. After all, 20 is Plenty where people are.

https://road.cc/content/news/smartphone-speeding-app-will-it-actually-work-291605

On 02/04/2022 15:55, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

> More details of this excellent new scheme.

> https://road.cc/content/news/smartphone-speeding-app-will-it-actually-work-291605

The 'details of this excellent new scheme' as published by road.cc
completely fail to mention the legal acceptance of this unproved system.

Merely uploading the result to the cops isn't going to cut it.

Does it work for bicycles too? road.cc also fails to mention this..

--
Spike

IanMSpencer | 371 posts | 14 hours ago
2 likes

The arbiter of this app will be the courts.

If a suitably high court accepts that the app is accurate then it will be useful but you can bet Mr Loophole will pull it apart.

The police are very constrained in their use of speed camera data - they have to show it has been calibrated, operated within the operational guidelines.

On Pepipoo, drivers have still got off by vehemently claiming the camera was wrong and producing pseudoscientific justifications that bamboozle magistrates who are basically members of the public.

So, I'm not really interested in developers claims - the police and CPS won't touch it with a bargepole because of their experience with speed cameras..

reply quote

Avatar
IanMK replied to IanMSpencer | 561 posts | 3 hours ago
0 likes

It's different from a speed camera. It's calculating the speed from a video clip - IE the time taken to cover a certain distance. This can be independently verified if it was taken to court.
The trouble is that I'd like to think that if I caught/filmed a driver traveling at a speed significantly above the speed limit this would result in a prosecution regardless of whether I had the app. You can do the maths done by the app manually if you wanted. The truth is it won't. So why would anyone think that the app will be a game changer.
I think if I downloaded the app and submitted footage I would be even more disappointed with police attitudes to road safety than I am already.

reply quote

On 03/04/2022 09:56, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

> The arbiter of this app will be the courts.

It might never come to that, due to the requirements of a pesky thing
called 'evidence' - which has to meet certain criteria.

> If a suitably high court accepts that the app is accurate then it will be useful but you can bet Mr Loophole will pull it apart.

GREAT STUFF

> The police are very constrained in their use of speed camera data - they have to show it has been calibrated, operated within the operational guidelines.

Oh...shit...really?

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Spike

Ratfink | 244 posts | 2 hours ago
0 likes
So if you stand on the kerb holding your smartphone filming passing cars i'd imagine that you'd very quickly no longer be the owner of a smartphone in most parts of London.

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Avatar
hirsute replied to Ratfink | 5380 posts | 2 hours ago
0 likes

How is that any different from making a call or checking a web page ?

reply quote

On 03/04/2022 09:32, Spike wrote:
> On 02/04/2022 15:55, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> https://road.cc/content/news/smartphone-speeding-app-will-it-actually-work-291605
>
> Does it work for bicycles too? road.cc also fails to mention this..

Doubt it. The app thinks the speed limit along my road is 30, when it is
20 (the council's aim is to get the 80%-ile below 28mph). It keeps
whinging about the need to hold the camera steady, which makes it
unusable handheld.

Most of my 20 credits were used up with a "can't track vehicle" and I
obtained just six results. One van was captured doing 31mph, which is
probably an over-estimate. Two police vans happened to pass by and were
visually the fastest of all the vehicles but they didn't give a result.
Of the other five, the average was 22.38mph.

Uninstalled.

On 07/04/2022 11:17, TMS320 wrote:
> On 03/04/2022 09:32, Spike wrote:
>> On 02/04/2022 15:55, swldx...@gmail.com wrote:

>>> https://road.cc/content/news/smartphone-speeding-app-will-it-actually-work-291605

>> Does it work for bicycles too? road.cc also fails to mention this..

> Doubt it. The app thinks the speed limit along my road is 30, when it is
> 20 (the council's aim is to get the 80%-ile below 28mph). It keeps
> whinging about the need to hold the camera steady, which makes it
> unusable handheld.

> Most of my 20 credits were used up with a "can't track vehicle" and I
> obtained just six results. One van was captured doing 31mph, which is
> probably an over-estimate. Two police vans happened to pass by and were
> visually the fastest of all the vehicles but they didn't give a result.
> Of the other five, the average was 22.38mph.

Doesn't sound great, does it?

> Uninstalled.

I'm not surprised.

--
Spike

On Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 12:17:57 PM UTC+1, TMS320 wrote:

>
> Most of my 20 credits were used up with a "can't track vehicle" and I
> obtained just six results. One van was captured doing 31mph, which is
> probably an over-estimate. Two police vans happened to pass by and were
> visually the fastest of all the vehicles but they didn't give a result.
> Of the other five, the average was 22.38mph.
>
> Uninstalled.

I have "uninstalled" my app altogether by not even having a mobile phone.
Waste of time and money.