It’s Time to Replace Meter Maids With Riderless Motorcycles

Eduardo Arndt

The coming rise of autonomous vehicles has already sparked fears that cars immune to human error won’t incur the speeding and parking fines that keep city coffers stuffed. But there will be a healthy gap between the technology’s arrival and its ubiquity. That’s what makes the Brigade useful.

Brigade is a conceptual driverless motorcycle I have designed to keep the peace in small towns, and keep human officers doing more important work. Carrying a suite of cameras, sensors, projectors, and speakers, the electric two-wheeler would stay upright thanks to a built-in gyroscope.

Charles Bombardier

About

A mechanical engineer and a member of the family whose aerospace and transportation company builds trains, planes, and more, Bombardier’s at his best when he ignores pesky things like budgets, timelines, and contemporary physics. Since 2013, he’s run a blog cataloging more than 200 concepts, each a fantastic, farfetched new way for people to travel through land, air, water, and space. His ideas are out there, but it’s Bombardier’s sort of creative thinking that keeps us moving forward.

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Like a combination of KITT, a red light camera, and a meter maid, Brigade would silently patrol the streets, looking for things like expired registrations and illegally parked cars. It would file timestamped video evidence with the municipal court and email the owner a citation.

For offenses like speeding, Brigade wouldn’t even bother to stop, instead alerting the offender with a flashing light and audio message. If the driver ignores the admonition, Brigade would follow him and alert nearby, human cops.

Now, this concept is about more than issuing tickets. Each unit doing the grunt work of patrolling for low-level offenders would free police officers to more vital tasks, like investigating violent crimes and truly keeping the streets safe.

Thanks to Montreal-based freelance industrial designer Eduardo Arndt, who produced these renderings of the Brigade concept.