Smart Compliance: How AI parking firm pushed from Australia is using Kiwis’ private data to ticket them

详细摘要

An AI-powered parking firm – blocked from accessing Australians’ private data – has brought its cameras to New Zealand and issued 238,314 tickets last year. Critics fear that as…

Parking companies using AI and number plate reading cameras are expanding fast in New Zealand after being granted access to Kiwis' private data in the motor vehicle register.

An AI-powered parking firm – blocked from accessing Australians’ private data – has brought its cameras to New Zealand and issued 238,314 tickets last year. Critics fear that as AI makes surveillance “almost costless”, issuing citizens fines for every mistake or minor rule broken could soon become a common money-spinner for governments and businesses.

Her heart stopped and she almost died in a supermarket carpark – now the AI-powered company that sent her a parking ticket is aiming for booming growth by booking as many Kiwis as possible.

The woman collapsed in New World Ōrewa’s carpark north of Auckland in July where a stranger rushed to revive her, media reported at the time.

But the 54-year-old’s car sat for more than five hours while she was in hospital – and the parking cameras caught it, landing her an $80 ticket from Smart Compliance Management.

The foreign-owned company issued Kiwis 238,314 “parking breach notices” in the last financial year – 27% more than the year before, which was already 48% up on the 2024 financial year.

It runs number plate-checking cameras at more than 300 New Zealand carparks, pitching its services to supermarkets, medical centres and even churches.

It’s one of several companies using the technology that have been subject to complaints from Kiwis about unfair ticketing practices.

Jon Duffy, head of non-profit watchdog Consumer NZ, said as AI-powered systems spread it raises concerns about the potential for a “clinical, almost surgical nature of enforcement”.

文章开头，摘自NZ Herald Business。如需阅读全文，请前往媒体网站。