Villager shames speeding cars with homemade AI bot
BBCA villager's homemade camera system is detecting more than one thousand speeding vehicles every day and automatically posting offenders on a "Wall of Shame".
Any motorist exceeding 30mph on the A113 in Stanford Rivers, near Ongar, is captured and added to a daily live count. Friday's count was 1377.
The small camera works out speeds by the distance a car travels between two frames. An AI system automatically sends the data to a dashboard before social media posts are generated of the worst offenders.
The creator requested his identity be hidden, but he said: "You're looking at 1400 people breaking the speed limit. That's shocking for a small village in Essex."
He said some drivers reached speeds of up to 60mph.
He added: "[The road] is quite narrow in places. It's just crazy."
The national speed limit on the road is reduced to 30mph upon entering the village, but the change is clearly signposted.
Councillor John Adams said Stanford Rivers Parish Council was "grateful" for the "brilliant job" the resident had done.
Adams said: "We were using the data as a parish council to try and get the police to target various times of the day when it was at its worst.
"We could pick that off from this data and it was quite useful and they did do that for us."
How does it work?
SuppliedThe creator said he was inspired by a similar bot built by Gareth Rees in Finchampstead, Berkshire.
The data is sent to a spreadsheet and then to the A113 Speederbot website.
Once every hour, the worst offender is posted on social media and the website's "Wall of Shame" with a blurred photo of a car and their speed.
SuppliedWhy is he doing it?
Pictures are checked by the creator before they are posted to ensure no one can be identified.
Posts that show faces, numberplates or distinct vehicles will not get through.
He continued: "The project's definitely not about exposing people as individuals or doxing anyone or anything nasty like that.
"If anyone sees any images on there they don't like they can get in touch with us and we'll always consider taking images down. We're not here to upset anyone or persecute individuals."
He says speeding is sometimes incorrectly viewed as a "victimless crime", but in fact lives can be "ruined" by it.
He said his next step will be collaborating with the police.
Essex Police did not endorse or condemn his actions.
A spokesperson said "more information" from speed watchers helps them allocate resources.
Domestic CCTV that records public areas is usually subject to data protection rules, though the anonymisation of drivers may reduce those concerns.
Do you have a story suggestion for Essex? Contact us below.
Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.