THIS WEEK IN SURVEILLANCE

YOUR DRIVING PRIVILEGES WILL BE TIED TO AI SURVEILLANCE. In the corporate government that comprises the U.S., companies often develop their business model not to sell to consumers, but to instigate legislation that makes their products required as a matter of law.
So it is with recent efforts by Motion Intelligence, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) tech company that has developed software to monitor drivers and prevent them from engaging in acts of “distracted driving.”
A recent press release from the company noted that it is essentially lobbying to impose its technology on commercial drivers, and eventually, in every vehicle.
Under the all too familiar clarion call of “safety,” Motion Intelligence is seeking to establish its intrusive monitoring technology into every car.
“We are proud of the work being done by several organizations, including EndDD, the National Highway Safety Council, Together for Safer Roads, the National Safety Council, and others working to raise awareness of the severity of this issue and the ways it can be prevented,” the company said in a 1 April press release.
The press release states that Motion Intelligence is currently working to have its “distracted driving” AI surveillance installed in commercial driving fleets:
“Motion Intelligence is bringing the message about the importance of investing in technology to help drivers have safer relationships with their smartphones and other mobile devices to events throughout Distracted Driving Awareness Month. You can learn more about fleet safety and our unique solution at the upcoming Idelic Fleet Safety & Operations Conference on April 4-6, where James Curnel will be presenting on ways to effectively manage and reduce distracted driving incidents, and the National Private Truck Council Conference April 9-11.”
The Trends Journal has previously reported on a growing trend of intrusive driver and employee monitoring by Amazon and other companies.
Though the companies in question often claim “safety” as a reason for the systems, many employees say the real purpose is to try to monitor every activity with the intention of making sure employees are spending virtually every moment attentively working, for the profit and benefit of the companies rolling out the surveillance.
Should the safety snooping be accepted as standard by Americans and citizens of other supposedly free democracies, it will no doubt evolve and be used to record and verify criminal infractions of distracted driving.
And it will open the door to further corrosions of privacy that will add and enable further AI-powered monitoring in vehicles, including expanding visual and audio recording, real-time data transfer to authorities, etc.
All in the name of safety, of course.
For related articles, see:

• “AMAZON CITES ‘SAFETY’ TO BIOMETRICALLY TRACK DRIVERS” (30 Mar 2021)
• “AI SURVEILLANCE BECOMING AN EVERYDAY REALITY” (13 Apr 2021)
• “WE’RE IN YOUR HOUSE, SAYS BIG TECH CALL CENTER TO EMPLOYEES” (10 Aug 2021)