{"id":621127,"date":"2026-04-21T09:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T09:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/621127\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T09:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T09:58:12","slug":"state-waives-over-1-million-in-fines-from-ai-assisted-road-safety-cameras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/621127\/","title":{"rendered":"State waives over $1 million in fines from AI-assisted road safety cameras"},"content":{"rendered":"

Motorists in Western Australia have had more than $1.1 million worth of fines withdrawn from artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted road safety cameras.<\/p>\n

The cameras began operating in WA last year, following their earlier rollout in states including New South Wales in 2020, but the WA Department of Transport has now waived more than 2000 infringements issued using the technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve actually done is waived a number of fines from people who have been fined in quick succession because they simply weren\u2019t aware of the technology catching them out,\u201d WA road safety minister Reece Whitby told ABC Radio Perth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The use of AI cameras to detect offending motorists has drawn criticism, including cases where innocent drivers were incorrectly issued infringements<\/a> both in Australia and overseas.<\/p>\n

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The cameras are commonly used to detect offences such as illegal mobile phone use by drivers, and improper seatbelt usage by drivers and passengers alike.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law has always said that the driver has responsibility for the safety of [passengers], including the correct wearing of seatbelts of people in their car,\u201d Mr Whitby said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese new safety cameras have actually changed behaviour, and I have no doubt they\u2019ve actually saved lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking at rolling out more, but again, we want to take a very careful and staged approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In Queensland, which has some of the highest monetary penalties for motoring offences in Australia, AI cameras came under scrutiny late last year over potential privacy concerns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This followed record fine revenue, with the state government collecting $464.3 million<\/a> in the 2024 financial year \u2013 almost triple its 2019\u201320 total \u2013 despite the number of fines falling by 30 per cent.<\/p>\n

In WA, around 53,000 fines for improper seatbelt usage have been issued using AI-assisted cameras, making the roughly 2000 withdrawn a small proportion of the total.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing offences being picked up at a scale we\u2019ve not seen before because the cameras actually look down into the [vehicle\u2019s] cabin,\u201d Mr Whitby said.<\/p>\n

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The minister said the withdrawal of $1.1 million in fines demonstrated the system was working, with motorists able to successfully appeal incorrect penalties.<\/p>\n

\u201cLess than four per cent of offences, seatbelt offences in particular, have been overturned. It means that most people are copping the fine and realise that they\u2019re doing the wrong thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you do have a legitimate issue, and you think you\u2019ve been wronged and it\u2019s unfair, you will get a fair crack and you will be considered.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE: Privacy concerns raised over \u2018unfair\u2019 AI-assisted mobile phone and seatbelt camera fines<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Motorists in Western Australia have had more than $1.1 million worth of fines withdrawn from artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[256,254,255,64,63,105],"class_list":["post-621127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}