Know-It-All ASSET Camera Comes in 2013

It was only a matter of time before the plain old speed camera, as much of a pain in the proverbial you know what, as it was, became a high-tech, Big Brother know-it-all. Such an evolution is about to take place in Europe, where a new breed of camera is expected to be deployed sometime in 2013.

So, what's so scary about it? Well, it knows everything there is to know about you. And we do mean anything. Aside for recognizing the number plates or figuring it out whether you are wearing your seatbelt or not, the camera is capable of accessing data which will tell it if a given motorist paid his insurance, taxes and so on.

But that doesn't end there. Pretty much any time of road offense you can think of, the camera can detect. As said, it looks inside the car and sees if you are wearing a seat belt or not, but can also pick up a car which is tailgating.

The even sadder part is that even before you've reached you destination, a ticket or worse might already be waiting for you. The ASSET camera (Advanced Safety and Driver Support for Essential Road Transport) is linked to satellites, which in turn communicate with the police, so in essence authorities will know you were a bad boy even before you realize it.

According to the Daily Mail, the ASSET project is being funded by the European Union. Once they become ready to roll (in 2013), the cameras will cost about EUR57,200 (GBP50,000, $81,000). The camera is being currently tested in Finland by the VTT Technical Research Centre, and will be so until the end of 2011.

“The main intention is to support traffic police so that drivers follow traffic rules such as wearing seat belts, keep to the speed limit and maintain sufficient distance to the vehicle in front,” Matti Kutila, VVT senior research scientist told the Daily Mail.