Adelaide City Council is set to vote on whether to suspend its AI-powered parking enforcement vehicles, with councillor Mary Couros calling for the cars to be taken off the road before proposed state government reforms come into force.
The motion will be considered on November 10 after the camera vehicles generated thousands of fines by identifying alleged parking offences. The system has faced mounting criticism from motorists who say penalties sometimes arrived weeks after the incident.
The South Australian Government plans to ban so-called “ticketless” parking fines, requiring inspectors either to issue a physical infringement notice or hand it directly to the driver at the time of the alleged offence.
Complaining motorists have said the delay leaves them unable to explain what happened or gather evidence to challenge a fine. One Adelaide driver said they had been fined twice while picking up or dropping off a customer.
“I’ve been stung by it like twice,” the driver said. “I’m not parking, I’m just picking up a customer or dropping off a customer. It’s a scam.”
Ms Couros said the council should pause the programme until the new rules were in place.
“Let’s go on pause and let’s just wait for this to come in and be fair and equitable to the public,” she said.
Some motorists have also backed a return to human inspectors, arguing that face-to-face contact would give drivers an opportunity to explain a mistake before a penalty was issued.
Adelaide’s Minister for the City, Lucy Hood, supported the proposed changes, saying drivers should be able to speak to an inspector before receiving a notice in the post. “If you can actually have that conversation with a parking inspector, they might be able to acknowledge, right, you’re only here for a couple of moments,” she said.
However, councillor Patrick Maher is expected to oppose the suspension. He argued that AI technology was already used to enforce other road rules and rejected the Premier’s distinction between parking offences and road safety breaches.
“They are still both offences under the Australian Road Rules,” he said. “I don’t buy the Premier’s argument that one’s for safety and one’s not. They’re both under the same Act.”
Mr Maher acknowledged there was a difference between parking infringements and offences such as speeding or running red lights, but said stopping the vehicles could create further difficulties for the council’s enforcement work.
“Cutting off the car at this point in time would cause more problems than it’s worth,” he said.
The council vote will take place as the future of Adelaide’s AI parking enforcement scheme remains under scrutiny and the state government prepares to introduce its proposed reforms.
