The Reason NYC's Attempt To Record Drivers Using Facial Recognition Failed

It is still early enough in the development of facial recognition to obtain accurate tracking of fully visible faces, let alone those of drivers behind their windshields moving quickly. JL


Paul Berger reports in the Wall Street Journal:

The “initial period for the proof of concept testing for facial recognition has been completed and failed with no faces (0%) being detected within acceptable parameters.” There are significant technical challenges and privacy concerns related to capturing the faces of drivers through their windshield as they pass by at speed. "There is a difference between using facial recognition as an investigative tool and as a ”pervasive, real-time surveillance of everyone passing by. Coupled with the MTA’s collection of license plate information at tolls, facial recognition “represents a sea change in government’s ability to track us.”
First attempts last year to record and identify faces of drivers as they zip along the highway at the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge have failed, according to an internal Metropolitan Transportation Authority email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Experts say there are significant technical challenges and privacy concerns related to capturing the faces of drivers through their windshield as they pass by at speed. But the state-controlled MTA, which handles 900,000 vehicles on average each day at seven bridges and two tunnels, says it is pressing ahead.

“We are testing the technology, and all others that will help us keep New Yorkers safe, while protecting their civil liberties,” said a spokesman for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Mr. Cuomo touted the benefits of facial recognition in July 2018 at a ceremony marking the completion of more than $500 million of renovations at the MTA’s Hugh L. Carey and Queens-Midtown tunnels. ”It can see the face of the person in the car and run that technology against databases,” Mr. Cuomo said.
Several months later, in the Nov. 29 email reviewed by the Journal, an MTA official wrote to a senior official in Mr. Cuomo’s administration that the “initial period for the proof of concept testing at the RFK for facial recognition has been completed and failed with no faces (0%) being detected within acceptable parameters.”
In the email, the official added that a second hard drive containing images of drivers had been sent for analysis and that additional cameras were being procured for expansion of the program to other facilities.
A spokesman for the MTA said that the pilot program continues at the bridge, which links Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens, and at both tunnels as well as at the Throgs Neck and Bronx-Whitestone bridges. He said that evaluation of the technology continues.
Government officials say facial recognition can be useful to identify and track terrorists and violent criminals. But civil rights campaigners warn that the technology is inaccurate, particularly when identifying people of color, women and children, and that it represents a troubling expansion of government power.
Daniel Schwarz, a technologist at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said there is a difference between using facial recognition as an investigative tool and as a ”pervasive, real-time surveillance of everyone passing by.“ Lee Rowland, NYCLU policy director, said that coupled with the MTA’s collection of license plate information at toll facilities, facial recognition “represents a sea change in our government’s ability to track us.”
After Mr. Cuomo touted the cameras at bridges and tunnels last July, MTA Chairman Joe Lhota said they would be used to help the authority catch scofflaws who tried to avoid tolls by covering up their license plates. But the MTA spokesman, Maxwell Young, said Friday that Mr. Lhota, who stepped down last fall, was incorrect and that the technology is only being used for security.
He added that the MTA takes civil liberties seriously. “Only a small handful” of MTA workers have access to the data collected during the program, Mr. Young said: “Nothing whatsoever is being shared with law enforcement or anyone outside of the people involved with the pilot.”
Mr. Young said the MTA paid Idemia, a French multinational security and identity company, about $25,000 for the facial recognition pilot program. A spokesman for Idemia didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Facial recognition technology is replacing passwords, PINs and fingerprints as an authentication method to access systems and locations across many areas of life from smartphones to buildings.
Hector Santos-Villalobos, who leads research in facial recognition at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, said the technology is more convenient than a fingerprint and improving rapidly amid advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Researchers at the laboratory recently published a study in which they achieved more than 80% accuracy identifying faces through a windshield of a vehicle moving at low speed.
Mr. Santos-Villalobos cautioned that the sample size was small and he said that the technology still has a way to go to detect faces in vehicles traveling at higher speeds. But, he added, “There is a possibility, absolutely.”