Oakland City Council adopted a resolution on April 14 authorizing a six-month pilot with Aerbits Inc. to detect illegal dumping, according to the city’s Legistar filing. The program is budgeted at $150,000 and would fund 72 flights covering 1,440 linear miles at roughly 120 to 150 feet, per SFGATE and The Oaklandside. City documents and vendor statements reported by Hoodline and SFGATE say the drones’ AI will flag bulky waste items and produce GPS-tagged photos that can feed into 311 work orders, while images of private property and personally identifying information will be excluded or redacted. The Council also approved tougher penalties for illegal dumping, including fines increased up to $5,000, NBC Bay Area reported.
