The latest radars, equipped with special cameras, are already available on the market. The first European country to use them is Germany, where drivers have already begun to confront this “big brother” whose objective is not to detect speeding, but the misuse of the mobile.
The new radars aim to identify who is driving with one eye on the road and the other on the cell phone. And you don’t even have to be on the phone. Just hold it down to view a message, turn off an alarm, or see the time. According to the German press, the system is not “100% intelligent” but, being mounted in a more vertical position, it detects the position of the driver’s hands through the windscreen. The software looks for situations where one hand (or both) is occupied with something other than the steering wheel and captures the image, which is then analyzed by a team of experts. If it is a cell phone in the driver’s hand, the fine is guaranteed.
For those who think that this is unfair harassment of drivers, the Minister of the Interior, Roger Lewentz, recalls that “in 2021 alone there were 1,001 accidents caused by driver distraction, in most cases caused by use. of the cell phone”. For the politician, it is the need to increase road safety that “justifies the use of these new cameras”.
Before going into service, the new “anti-mobile” system was tested on one of the roads in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate and, in just one hour, caught 10 drivers who violated it. Hence the decision to put the new radars into operation, for now for a three-month trial period, starting in early June.
Germany is the first European country to test this new technology, but it was not the first worldwide, since Australia has been using a similar system since 2019. The operation of these radars was considered so positive by the Australians that the Dutch also decided to start. wearing it, so it shouldn’t be long before fashion hits Portugal.
Source: Observadora
