Official police cars around the world all have them; strobe or beacon lights. You know, those things that are on the roof of the cop car, and flashes a blue light when it's chasing you and your motorcycle....
Well, the French cops got a new beacon/strobe/flash light. It looks like the old one, but at a closer inspection, you'll notice that it has several cameras built-in.
In fact, there are 4 cameras on each side, all equipped with infrared, that record simultaneously and continuously. The video stream is sent to an onboard computer that analyzes the data.
Specially, the computer checks all license plates (cars, motorcycles and trucks) to see if they were stolen, or any outstanding warrants. The cops inside get warned when such a vehicle has been spotted. There's nothing for them to do but wait for the computer.
It's pretty good news for those of us who have already lost a motorcycle because of theft. But the flipside of the new system, is that it is used to record you doing something you shouldn't be doing. Like driving through a stop sign without stopping, not wearing seat belts and even talking on your mobile phone while driving.
Since this machine doesn't come cheap, €17,000 per car, you can be ensured that it'll be used for gathering fines. Someone needs to pay for these new high tech toys.
Click on the Via: link below to see a video of the system in action (in French);
Via: Motosblog
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