Waze forum

Hi all, 

As you've probably seen in the news the new mobile phone/seatbelt cameras are operational now in Qld and the police are not disclosing their locations. 

I've been following this closely and trying to locate some of these cameras, I've spotted a few mobile ones but importantly I've located one of the new fixed camera locations. 

https://waze.com/editor?env=row&lat=-27 ... 600&zoom=9  (marked with a comment for the moment)

This system consists of a module above each lane made up of two black rectangular boxes, one facing forward (to see people holding a phone to the ear) and one facing down (to view your lap to see if you're holding a phone/wearing a seatbelt). After doing some research I believe these are the new Acusensus model (https://www.acusensus.com/). 

I wanted to confirm my suspicions as the Acusensus cameras use an infrared flash to capture their images, I set up an IR sensitive security camera on my dash and made a slow pass under the cameras last night and was able to capture the twin IR flash very clearly (here is a 6sec clip of this, apologies for the quality but the point is fairly clear still https://photos.app.goo.gl/2WsWMdin1U8JWrec9) . 

I've read that Waze doesn't intend to create a specific camera entry for this type of camera but that dummy cameras can be used instead. 

I'm requesting that someone with the appropriate level of privileges add a dummy camera to this location to help warn drivers. If more evidence is needed I'm planning another few trips out, one in day time to get clear shots of the cameras and another parked nearby at night to get multiple clear shots of the IR flash going off as vehicles drive past. If this evidence is needed I'll be happy to provide it. Planning to share as widely as I can on youtube/reddit etc as well but of course Waze is the best place for this kind of data. 

Please note I'm not advocating for people texting while driving obviously but the Qld laws are fairly predatory, having your phone on your lap can get you a $1k+ fine even if you aren't playing with it, not to mention many cases from down south of people being fined for having a wallet on their lap, a hat, cigarette packet, any vaguely rectangular object etc! 

I have only just learned about the editing community so I'm already busy tidying things up around my local area, thanks to all of you doing this hard work to keep the maps accurate! Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help get this request actioned. Either here or email me @ jmwhalen87@gmail.com

Cheers,
Jordan

Go to https://waze.uservoice.com and search for "phone camera". Pick a suggestion and add a comment or more votes. Even though there are no plans to add new camera types, things can change.

Please try not to add another suggestion to the list. It doesn't help things progress any further ;)
 
 
 

Impressive research, Thunderballs87. And I'm glad to see you've started editing in your local area. You can't beat local knowledge

As much as I'd like to see a new camera type added, there's a bigger picture at play. The development team isn't infinite, and they're working on a prioritised list of features as well as a lot of backend infrastructure work. They've also indicated the need to build a new framework for points on the map first which will go to supporting many new features, as opposed to just adding a new camera type. We also need to consider that Australia is just one country, and by no means the biggest, so we're competing with millions of other passionate users around the world.

A small group of Australian volunteers are currently testing some app changes that might help address portable cameras, but the issue of new fixed camera types is likely going to remain unresolved until we get the above implemented first. In the meantime, identifying the location of cameras, what they do, mapping as dummy cameras, and adding map comments is the best start. That'll allow us to more easily add them retrospectively in the future.

I hope this explanation helps.   Hope to see you around the map!
 

Update: a dummy cam has now been added at the spot, thank you! I'll keep hunting for the others

Would be good if Waze could make a special camera type for these hey?

I wasn't aware of the uservoice thing, thank you for the suggestion. I'll find the most relevant one and add my info to the mix. Seems like such a simple thing a dev could get together on his coffee break, must be more too the story why they aren't taking action!

Cheers,
Jordan