UK-Spy satellites will give you a ticket now

[broberfett]

Forget smashing those street level cameras, now they will use spy satellites to rob drivers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...-speed-cameras-trap-motorists-from-space.html

 

[John Picard]

Forget smashing those street level cameras, now they will use spy satellites to rob drivers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...-speed-cameras-trap-motorists-from-space.html

How are drivers being robbed?

 

[Lindley]

So long as they're looking for outliers it might be okay. Highways work best when half the people are driving a bit over the speed limit, after all, and if they start sending tickets to 50% of drivers there will be a problem.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

How are drivers being robbed?

You can't confront your accuser in court if it's a satellite...

 

[John Picard]

How are drivers being robbed?

You can't confront your accuser in court if it's a satellite...

Neither can a camera be confronted, yet it's legal. Again, how are people being robbed?

 

[bigdaddy]

Being robbed our freedoms...

 

[sbk1234]

Is it robbery if you really are guilty of what you are accused?

 

[John Picard]

Being robbed our freedoms...

Explain. An ambiguous statement like that is neither a reason nor a coherent answer.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Any technological device can malfunction.

If you get nicked by a cop in a speed trap, you can take your case to court and confront that cop directly. The accuracy of the camera can be questioned. You can't do this with a satellite.

In any case, even if you really are speeding, you have the right to a trial in court (I'm guessing this is true in the UK as well as the US). But how can you have one if you were caught by only a machine? Is there a way to question IT? What's your recourse? Do drivers caught by machines have any rights?

 

[JoeZhang]

Any technological device can malfunction.

If you get nicked by a cop in a speed trap, you can take your case to court and confront that cop directly. The accuracy of the camera can be questioned. You can't do this with a satellite.

In any case, even if you really are speeding, you have the right to a trial in court (I'm guessing this is true in the UK as well as the US). But how can you have one if you were caught by only a machine? Is there a way to question IT? What's your recourse? Do drivers caught by machines have any rights?

Yes you can appeal the ticket, as has always been the case in the UK - be it if the ticket is issued by man or machine. So your point is... no point.

As for the Satellite - it's simply GPS being used to measure the distance between two speed cameras. So if you are caught on Speed camera A at one point and speed camera B at another, you have to explain how you covered the distance of ten miles in 4 and a half minutes...

The article makes it sound like it's taking pictures from space...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Yes you can appeal the ticket, as has always been the case in the UK - be it if the ticket is issued by man or machine.

So exactly how do you go about doing this if a machine got you? Who do you confront in court? How can you question the machine's accuracy?

 

[John Picard]

Any technological device can malfunction.

If you get nicked by a cop in a speed trap, you can take your case to court and confront that cop directly. The accuracy of the camera can be questioned. You can't do this with a satellite.

In any case, even if you really are speeding, you have the right to a trial in court (I'm guessing this is true in the UK as well as the US). But how can you have one if you were caught by only a machine? Is there a way to question IT? What's your recourse? Do drivers caught by machines have any rights?

By using your rationale, police officers should not be allowed to use radar guns. Nice try, but that argument doesn't work. I would then ask you if the officer should then be required to follow the suspect and pace him with the police cruiser, at which point I would then argue that perhaps neither speedometer is properly calibrated.

What's the margin of error for a GPS? Very slim, but they're considered accurate enough to be used for surveying.

 

[Pingfah]

In any case, even if you really are speeding, you have the right to a trial in court (I'm guessing this is true in the UK as well as the US). But how can you have one if you were caught by only a machine? Is there a way to question IT? What's your recourse? Do drivers caught by machines have any rights?

These questions are entirely pointless, there are numerous examples of people being convicted on video evidence, photographic evidence, sound recordings, all of which are provided by a machine, all of which still require a trial to examine the evidence.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ And what about the red light cameras? Those don't require a trial. They just send you the ticket in the mail. No means of appeal. Some states, like mine, don't allow such cameras, for that very reason.

 

[John Picard]

No one has yet explained how driver's are "robbed" or how "freedoms are lost".

 

[Pingfah]

^ And what about the red light cameras? Those don't require a trial. They just send you the ticket in the mail. No means of appeal. Some states, like mine, don't allow such cameras, for that very reason.

You can appeal a parking ticket in the UK if you think it'll get you anywhere, you can appeal anything where there is the opportunity to question the evidence. At your own risk of course, you'll probably just get the fine increased if there's satellite evidence against you.

 

[cultcross]

Ah, it's another in the broberfett series of 'OMG TEH UK IS BIG BRUVVER' threads. As usual, his title is overblown and ridiculous. The system in question is combining the two existing technologies of Automated Number Plate Recognition with GPS, to create an 'average speed' camera from a relatively simple/cheap ANPR software enabled camera. It's not 'being spied on from space' or 'satellites giving you tickets' or any other nonsense. As the AA, always champions of motorists rights point out, it's a natural evolution of existing technologies, and nicely answers most of the issues people have with fixed cameras, such as the claim that taking a speed at a single point doesn't represent a driver's real performance on the road. This technology would solve that issue through averaging.
And Lindley, it's designed for use in areas like estates used as 'rat runs' to reach workplaces and schools, where motorists charge through residential areas to avoid using congested main roads. It would likely never be deployed on the motorway, there's simply nothing substantial to be gained from slowing the motorways down. The cost wouldn't be worth it.

 

[John Picard]

Ah, it's another in the broberfett series of 'OMG TEH UK IS BIG BRUVVER' threads. As usual, his title is overblown and ridiculous. The system in question is combining the two existing technologies of Automated Number Plate Recognition with GPS, to create an 'average speed' camera from a relatively simple/cheap ANPR software enabled camera. It's not 'being spied on from space' or 'satellites giving you tickets' or any other nonsense. As the AA, always champions of motorists rights point out, it's a natural evolution of existing technologies, and nicely answers most of the issues people have with fixed cameras, such as the claim that taking a speed at a single point doesn't represent a driver's real performance on the road. This technology would solve that issue through averaging.
And Lindley, it's designed for use in areas like estates used as 'rat runs' to reach workplaces and schools, where motorists charge through residential areas to avoid using congested main roads. It would likely never be deployed on the motorway, there's simply nothing substantial to be gained from slowing the motorways down. The cost wouldn't be worth it.

Dammit The voice of reason and sanity!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

It's not 'being spied on from space' or 'satellites giving you tickets' or any other nonsense.

So a driver can't get a ticket based on this thing's say-so?

 

[Pingfah]

^ Yes they can, but it is no more a satellite giving you a ticket than it is a speeding camera giving you one, it's a silly bit of rhetoric.