In Hamburg, 3,5% of all metro passengers are travelling without a ticket. In Berlin, the rate is at four percent and in Paris it even reaches five. The good news is: AI can now help in the fight against fraudulent behaviour in public transportation systems.
A Spanish start-up called ‘Awaait’ sells a product called ‘DETECTOR’. This a surveillance software that, with the use of AI, aims at detecting fare evaders in public transportation.
The software is linked to the stations’ surveillance cameras and is designed to detect anomalous behaviour that indicates that a passenger travels without a ticket.
It then sends a notification to the staff of the respective public transport company, which can in return interact in real-time and pull out the alleged fare evader for a control.
The software is currently in its testing phase, and has therefore been installed in the metro network of Barcelona. The first phase now is to show the system cases of people violating the rule of not entering without using a valid ticket, e.g. video recordings of people jumping over the gates to the metro. It is expected that by doing so, the AI technology of the software learns to detect these patterns automatically.
The great advantage of this is of economic nature and directly affects the efficiency of public transport providers: Ticket checks can now be done way more selectively. By focusing on the people in suspicion, the inspectors will be needed less frequently and in fewer numbers. Also, the ‘success rate’ of finding fraudulent behaviour is expected to increase, resulting in higher earnings for the public transport firms.
The project has been financed by a fund of the European Commission.
The question that arises here is: is this software one step too far in the field of mass surveillance? Is it really worth it to make investments for highly modern technology in metro stations in exchange for collecting a higher amount of fines? Or will it backfire, and people will avoid public transport in general due to concerns for their privacy?
Sources:
https://awaait.com/products
(in German) https://derstandard.at/2000087754965/Kuenstliche-Intelligenz-soll-Schwarzfahrer-ueberfuehren
