German Transport Minister Steffen Bilger is backing a nationwide rollout of so-called “phone-use cameras” that record inside vehicles to identify drivers using mobile phones. The proposal follows calls from Germany’s state governments to expand automated traffic enforcement, according to reports by dpa and the Rheinische Post.
The systems process video with computer software designed to detect whether a driver is holding a phone. According to the Rheinische Post, the technology can assess features such as a device’s shape, size, colour, brand and camera layout, alongside typical postures associated with making a call. A person then reviews flagged footage to determine whether an offence occurred.
Known as Monocams, the devices have been used in Rhineland-Palatinate since 2023. The state has since adjusted the legal basis for their use, and the cameras are now operating there on a regular basis.
Privacy concerns focus on both the scope of the recording and the possibility of expanding the system’s uses. Data protection advocate Konstantin Macher warned in 2023 that the technology could be adapted to detect other objects, and said the presence of cameras and AI could also bring automated facial recognition within reach.
The states are seeking a nationwide, technology-neutral legal framework that would allow different camera systems, rather than authorising only a specific model such as Monocam. The change would also mean recording drivers without a specific suspicion of wrongdoing. Under the previous approach described in the report, traffic images could be taken when there was a concrete reason to suspect an offence, such as speeding. The article notes that the Federal Constitutional Court has treated even a scan that produces no match as an intrusion into the right to informational self-determination.
Sources: netzpolitik.org.