Dubai deploys robot police to identify illegal cyclists on public beaches

Dubai Municipality recently announced the introduction of artificial intelligence robot police to monitor traffic violations by bicycle and electric scooter riders. According to Gulf News, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has started trials of the robot earlier.

The robots will patrol Dubai's public beach areas, linking offenders to their United Arab Emirates biometric ID cards. They will be tasked with recording those who congregate on bike lanes, drive or park scooters and bikes in unauthorized areas, and overload bikes.

But authorities said they would not issue fines to violators during the pilot period, but rather study the accuracy and error rate of facial recognition detection.

The use of robots that can capture human biometric information in the public domain has always been controversial. Robots can monitor 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but they also bring risks such as privacy leaks. Citizens of countries and regions that value personal information will be more disgusted with this behavior.

There is no doubt that the addition of robots has greatly improved the efficiency and accuracy of traffic management. Traditional traffic law enforcement methods often rely on human patrols, which are prone to blind spots and missed inspections, but robot police can monitor roads uninterruptedly around the clock, reducing errors caused by human factors and improving the detection rate of violations.

Secondly, the use of facial recognition technology makes it more difficult for violators to evade responsibility. By linking violation information with ID cards, traffic violations can be punished more accurately, avoiding behaviors such as impersonation and admission of punishment, which is more conducive to promoting the maintenance of traffic order through punishment.

For example, in recent years, the use of bicycles and electric scooters in Dubai has shown a rapid growth trend, but it is also accompanied by an increase in traffic violations. For example, some riders do not wear helmets, drive or park vehicles in unauthorized areas. These behaviors not only affect the safety of other road users, but also damage the image of the city. By introducing AI robot police, these behaviors can be better supervised, the safety of citizens and tourists can be guaranteed, and the image and quality of the city can be improved.

However, the introduction of AI robot police has also caused some concerns and controversy. First, some people worry that the use of robot police may infringe on personal privacy, especially in the application of facial recognition technology, personal identity information may be abused or leaked. This information may fall into the hands of criminals, who can then cover up their crimes or use personal information to commit fraud, etc., which has caused public concerns about personal privacy rights.

In addition, people have other concerns, such as the possibility that innocent people will be unfairly punished if the robot police misidentify someone. Human police have rich experience and emotions, and can better handle the relationship between violators and police when disputes arise, and enforce the law in a more civilized and humane manner, which are all lacking in the current robot police.

In general, although the introduction of AI robot police has brought some controversy, its advantages in improving traffic management efficiency and maintaining traffic order are also obvious. The Dubai government needs to further improve the supervision mechanism of robot police on the premise of protecting citizens' privacy and maintaining social fairness to ensure that it plays a greater role in urban management.

At the same time, other cities that plan to use AI robot police can also summarize and learn from Dubai’s experience, explore the best ways to integrate new technologies into traditional work, and build cities into smarter and safer future homes.