The French government wants to deploy new-generation surveillance cameras on roads that could pick up on more than just speeding, according to its 2025 spending plans.
With the help of artificial intelligence, cameras could detect other traffic offences including using a phone at the wheel, not wearing a seat belt or driving too close to another vehicle.
The new government's draft budget, now being debated in parliament, proposes equipping "several hundred" cameras to spot such violations.
It comes as part of a broader plan to maintain and modernise France's roughly 4,000 traffic cameras, at a proposed cost of some 46 million euros.
Most of those in operation now are only capable of catching out drivers who speed or go through red lights – though the most advanced can also distinguish between vehicles or count the number of passengers to check that drivers aren't misusing lanes reserved for car-sharing, for instance.
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Fines of €135
Each of the extra offences that could be automatically detected carries a 135-euro fine, as well as the deduction of three points from the driver's licence.
Drivers' association 40 Million Motorists denounced the move as a cash grab.
"These new speed cameras aren't really about road safety, they're just about making money," it said in a statement, arguing that trusting machines to identify offences risked resulting in wrongful fines for law-abiding drivers.
Traffic penalties brought just over 2 billion euros into the government's coffers last year, an increase of 7 percent compared to the year before.
Nearly 750 million euros of that came from violations picked up by cameras, according to France's court of auditors, up from 707 million in 2022.
Recent changes in the law have made it easier for local officials to add new traffic cameras on their roads.
France has also opted to extend the use of AI-driven video surveillance introduced for the Paris Olympics, raising concerns that more and more public space will be subject to automatic monitoring.
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