Waka Kotahi is trialling safety cameras on three Auckland state highways to see how many people use their phone behind the wheel.
File image. Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
They'll also be clocking how many people aren't wearing a seatbelt.
Waka Kotahi director of land transport Kane Patena told Checkpoint those picked up by the cameras would have their privacy protected and would not be getting hit with infringements or tickets.
"This is a safety camera trial that we're doing to understand the scale of distractive driving and the use of this camera technology that we've got," he said.
The trial is designed to ascertain the number of drivers breaking the road rules, with a view to pursuing potential enforcement options. Patena said the problem was already apparent.
"What we do know is that over 40,000 infringements were issued by the police last year for people who used their mobiles and equally we know that in 2020 there were four fatal crashes and 11 serious injury crashes, where distraction was identified as a contributing factor," he said.
"Now those are instances where people were either caught or an accident actually occurred that resulted in someone being seriously injured or killed," he said.
"This is really an opportunity for us to understand the technology and understand the size and scale of the problem. It may well inform some changes that need to be made to the legislation, which is used to create offences or carry out enforcement activity.
Use of the technology as part of any new enforcement regime would require a law change.
"At the moment, particularly when using these types of cameras for people not wearing seatbelts or using phones we can't use the technology for enforcement purposes," he said.
Waka Kotahi is currently looking at models used in the UK and Australia for road rules enforcement to help keep people safe.
The machine will pick up things like whether hands are off the wheel and whether something else is in the driver's hands, Patena said.
The technology will flag up the misbehaviour of drivers, which will then be checked by a human.
"For the purposes of the trial the artificial intelligence will identify whether someone, for example, one might be wearing a seat belt, but then we have people who will manually check and validate the facts, so we do have some checks and balances throughout this trial," he said.
The trial is employing technological protocols to protect people's privacy and Waka Kotahi have been in contact with the Privacy Commissioner's Office to ensure no breaches took place.
"We do have images that are encrypted and a lot of images will be automatically deleted from the camera site, particularly where they don't necessarily disclose where there's been any use of mobile phones or anyone who hasn't been wearing a seat belt," he said.
The trial starts tomorrow and will run for a six-month period. Afterwards, the data will be processed and reviewed for several months before a report is published.