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news
Video: The mobile phone app that pays users $5 for spotting drivers using their phones
Text To Ticket is a mobile app that will see its users paid $5 for submitting videos of people using mobile phones while driving. But before you start pondering how big a house you’ll buy with the proceeds, it’s worth pointing out two things: the app is currently US-only and every sighting has to be verified.
According to BikeBiz, the start-up responsible is hoping to roll out the app internationally and nor is the second of those two points too much of a stumbling block – verification is more straightforward than you might think.
The app automatically tracks the user’s location, date, time, longitude, latitude and other legally required information while the user is recording the violation. The information is then encrypted and digitally signed and sent to local agencies. If the driver is charged, you get your cash reward.
Videos must clearly show the driver using a mobile device and must also clearly capture the vehicle’s registration plate. The developers also make it clear: “We do NOT accept any videos from drivers recording other drivers at any time!”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
Latest Comments
- the little onion 21 min 7 sec ago
Can someone who know more clarify something: is the driver's license suspended until such time as they take this awareness course, or is it like a...
- Steve K 24 min 26 sec ago
The big hashed area around the spaces is a big clue too.
- Steve K 26 min 40 sec ago
It is, apparently, "packed with high visibility reflective details on back and shoulder."
- Rendel Harris 1 hour 49 min ago
The Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC) was one of the most important battles of the ancient world, where 7,000 Greeks, led by the Spartans under...
- ktache 9 hours 48 min ago
The people at Hexlox have asked me to tell others about their black Friday deals, but I don't quite know what the offer is yet. But saving anything...
- Dnnnnnn 10 hours 45 min ago
I'm unclear how simply considering the views of people who travel through an area is voting for rat-runs. No need to explain though.
- biking59boomer 12 hours 24 min ago
Sadly the cyclist hate in this country seems to have worsened of late. Dangerous motoring combined with anti-cycling officialdom in some places is...
- Cyclo1964 14 hours 56 min ago
Brilliant 🤣
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14 comments
I think it's a great idea. We can all be getting about feeling a little bit like a crap Judge Dredd. It's not GDR at all, we're not trying to nick people for thought crimes, but for putting ourselves and others in obvious physical danger.
If drivers think they will be caught then they might stop using their phones. Hard to imagine that this idea wouldn't reduce the level of law breaking. There is a civil liberties part to this but it's less important than saving lives.
Main flaw here is "If the driver is charged, you get your cash reward". Try sending footage like this to your local police & see what kind of response you get.
My local lot (Cambridge) will not act upon any video footage of lawbreaking drivers (inc. clear dangerous driving), even closing such complaints without even viewing the footage.
Less of the anti Italian business if you please.
It's not backtracking to explain why I think the financial compensation element makes this a terrible idea.
You might be happy for someone to follow you around, filming you on their phone, in the hope of earning a quick buck out of some legal transgression. I'm not.
How long will it be until some poor sod is shot for looking at his phone by the roadside?
Of course my reference to GDR wasn't a serious comparison, but you've got all sweary so I'll bite.
This is the top of a very slippery slope. Reporting a crime out of a sense of public duty or empathy with the victim is very, very different to financially rewarding members of the public for reporting crimes on a large scale.
It's one thing offering a reward for information about a murder or a particular theft. Quite another to have hoardes of people gathering evidence and reporting anyone and everyone for the slightest infringement, which is where this leads.
Hey, you started it with talking bollocks comparing this to the stasi and their informers, but yeah backtrack like an italian tank driver on how 'serious' you were.
I called the driver that killed 4 people whilst on his phone a cunt.
There's a big difference between reporting people for not following political views/rules/laws than reporting people for dangerous behaviour. I think of road safety as being like general health and safety rules - they are everyone's responsibility. Most drivers don't respond well to being asked to stop using their phones, so the only rational way to deal with it is to report them to the police.
The developers also make it clear: “We do NOT accept any videos from drivers recording other drivers at any time!”
If they are serious about saving lives, why does the above not apply? Obviously if recording driver is using a handheld device himself then he's a pratt who needs ticketing himself, but I constantly see other drivers on the phone who can be clearly seen on my forward facing dash cam, I wouldn't mind earning a bit of cash myself and getting idiots fined and thinking of how far reaching Big Brother can be.
It's a bit too GDR for my liking.
What, reporting someone who you know is commiting a criminal offence that does lead to inducing fear in others at best, at worst leads to death and destruction and the person committing the offence is basically saying 'fuck you' to the law makers and society as a whole. yup, that's just like informers in the former GDR.
Maybe you think this cunt https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/oct/31/lorry-driver-distracted-... shouldn't have had a nosy type grassing him up, unfortunately no-one could but IF someone had, maybe 3 children and a mother would be alive today.
that people know that others can grass them up over criminality might actually mean drivers are more cautious of reaching for the phone whilst in charge of a killing machine!
We could quit our jobs if they roll this out in the UK!
I think the internet would collapse first.