6 ms·
Why are these sensors not placed on garbage trucks or police cars?
by alex_g 10y ago
Why are these sensors not placed on garbage trucks or police cars?
- danso 10y agoBureaucracy, most likely. As a researcher, attaching sensors to public vehicles is an arrangement that you'd have to make separately with each jurisdiction. With Google, there is just one jurisdiction to negotiate with.
- BHSPitMonkey 10y agoWaste collection services are often privatized. They probably don't need the city's permission to collect environmental sensor data.
- asdfologist 10y agoWhat did they say when you suggested this to your local sanitation and police workers?
- HeyLaughingBoy 10y agoSo, you put the sensors on municipal vehicles. Then what? Who pays for the data upload and storage? Who pays for sensor maintenance? Who looks at it and interprets it? Who gets the benefit? From the POV of a local government official, I'll bet this looks like a way to throw money down a rat hole and be voted out for doing so.
- beamatronic 10y agoA local municipality can just sell/lease the space on the vehicle. The city provides 12v power and sheet metal space for bolting on a box. In return they get monthly cash payments.
- pbhjpbhj 10y agoInsurance companies that have GPS trackers / driving analysis boxes could add sensors and sell that data too.
- ufo 10y agoThis case sounded a bit experimental? Maybe they could try those vehicles next now that they know that the sensors work.
- justizin 10y agopolice cars don't systemically go down every street, garbage trucks, not a terrible idea, but they are inherently .. very .. dirty. I wouldn't want to be the engineer servicing sensors on them. Also, you would probably register unreasonably high levels of all sorts of things that are being released by decomp in the garbage.
- beamatronic 10y agoGarbage truck are a really good idea. They are already going to nearly every home on a regular basis. I'm surprised the licence-plate-reading companies such as Vigilant Solutions / Digital Recognition Network aren't doing this already. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/06/surveillance-for-hire-would-you-take-money-to-record-fellow-drivers/ http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/06/surveillance-for-...
- rconti 10y agoSan Francisco is using ALPR on Muni buses to issue tickets to cars that are in bus-only lanes or bus zones. But at least it's related specifically to buses and the equipment is carried by the very vehicle being impacted by the violation. https://www.sfmta.com/services/permits-citations/camera-enforcement https://www.sfmta.com/services/permits-citations/camera-enfo...
- cjrp 10y agoThat's really interesting. In London a lot of bus lanes are enforced with fixed cameras pointing at the lanes. It means even just ducking into the lane to get past a stopped car can result in a ticket. It makes so much more sense to have the detection done by the vehicle which is (potentially) being inconvenienced by the car being in the lane.
- Natanael_L 10y agoAir quality sensors on garbage trucks? Let me guess, it would be biased :)
- consto 10y agoImplying air quality sensors placed on any road vehicle aren't biased? While the majority of road vehicles still burn fossil fuels, it would be stupid to ignore the impact the fumes have on the data. It's important to remember that they are measuring the air quality a meter or two off the surface of the road network, NOT the region as a whole. However if all you are looking for is major gas leaks, even the data gathered from garbage trucks aught to be accurate enough. Gas from leaking pipes will be far more concentrated than that produced by garbage trucks. Unfortunately, I have not read the article due to the site apparently dying to the Hacker News hug of death.
- a_t48 10y agoThey could switch from Subarus to Priuses. :)
- crazysim 10y agoIt is kind of interesting they chose Subarus instead of Priuses. I wonder what sort of data/calculation they have saying some mid-sized 4WD ICE-only vehicle is the best for street view driving.
- rincebrain 10y agoIf I had to guess, I'd guess that, similar to their datacenter setups in some cases, they chose the cheaper, more easily replaceable option over a more efficient but {constrained, expensive} option.
- MrZongle2 10y agoOr USPS vehicles, for that matter....
- snark42 10y agoOr USPS delivery jeeps/cars/trucks.
- ajuc 10y agoAlso public transport. In my city they already have gps and network connection and there is a website where you can look up where they are.