AI-detected Bus Lane Offence Accuracy Assessment, Officer Review Requirements and Motorist Appeal Process
Ministry of TransportSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the Land Transport Authority's (LTA) planned artificial intelligence (AI) system using bus cameras to detect bus lane encroachments, raised by Mr Low Wu Yang Andre to the Minister for Transport. Mr Low inquired about the calculation of the reported 90% trial accuracy, whether authorised officers will review every detection, and how motorists can challenge erroneous detections. The Minister's response explained that trials analysing over 800 hours of footage correctly identified 415 of more than 450 encroachments, while also generating 257 false positives that LTA is working to reduce. It was affirmed that all AI-detected violations will continue to be manually reviewed by officers before enforcement, and motorists can appeal notices to be assessed by human officers. As accuracy improves, LTA intends to expand the system across more public bus services to protect bus lanes and maintain bus reliability.
Transcript
66 Mr Low Wu Yang Andre asked the Minister for Transport regarding LTA's planned AI system using bus cameras to detect bus lane encroachments (a) how its reported 90% trial accuracy is calculated, including sample size and false-positive and false-negative rates by intended use; (b) whether every AI-detected traffic offence will be reviewed by an authorised officer before enforcement; and (c) how motorists can challenge an erroneous detection.
Mr Jeffrey Siow: The artificial intelligence (AI) systems were trialled across a variety of use-cases, including to detect road defects, road works and bus lane encroachments. For bus lanes, the systems analysed over 800 hours of bus camera footage over three months, which captured more than 450 encroachments in total. The AI systems correctly detected 415 cases, or about 90% of encroachments. They also detected 257 cases which turned out to be false positives.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will continue to work with the vendor to refine these tools, including to reduce the number of false positives. In time, we will reduce the need for human oversight. Meanwhile, bus lane violations detected by the AI system will still be manually reviewed before enforcement action is taken. Motorists can contest or appeal a notice, similar to any other traffic offence today. These contests and appeals will continue to be assessed by human officers.
As the technology matures and accuracy improves, LTA will expand the use of bus cameras and AI across more public bus services to safeguard bus lanes and maintain bus speeds and reliability.