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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
- galibiervelo 21 min 40 sec ago
That is class news. Super bikes and vision. Bet there will be no stand at the Taiwan bike show next year! Big luck to all the team
- Hirsute 44 min 3 sec ago
"However, he said that by moving his head around Wilkinson, who was driving at around 20mph, could and should have been in a position to have seen...
- Destroyer666 1 hour 3 min ago
Pretty clearly stated several times in the text that the issue was not related just to his son. And besides, everybody watching the races could see...
- Rendel Harris 1 hour 19 min ago
All Fizik and Selle Italia saddles (though not all their other products) are made in Italy I believe, and their 3D printed models definitely are.
- chrisonabike 1 hour 45 min ago
If you're not on the road with a car, I bet its driver is much less likely to swerve into your space *. Because you're not "in the way"! (Any...
- mdavidford 2 hours 1 min ago
The problem with this argument, though, is that it's just not true....
- Legin 3 hours 56 min ago
The tory party will oppose anything that might restrict their tanks rolling at the next election.
- mdavidford 4 hours 26 min ago
Especially since the similarly priced Tickr X did have that functionality.
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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.