A robot is coming to Seattle to help you get out of parking tickets.
More specifically, a chatbot system called DoNotPay, created by second-year Stanford University student Joshua Browder, is looking to expand to Seattle after beat 160,000 parking tickets in London and New York.
The program first works out whether an appeal is possible through a series of simple questions, such as were there clearly visible parking signs, and then guides users through the appeals process.
If you’re not yet impressed, let the stats speak for themselves. DoNotPay has reportedly succeeded in getting 160,000 out of 250,000 parking tickets appealed. That’s a 64 percent success rate.
Between January 2014 and July 2015, Seattle collected over $33 million in fines and we’re guessing they’re not seeing 64 percent of their tickets go away. We’ll have to see if a program like this take a chunk out of that revenue. The city might even decide if you can’t beat’m to join’m and hire some robotic meter maids of their own.
Let the uprising begin and let it begin over city parking.
The DoNotPay app joins ones like Off The Record, which helps drivers fight traffic tickets, as new ways to balance the ongoing battle between drivers and the municipalities they drive (and park) in.
- Chatbot lawyer overturns 160,000 parking tickets in London and New York [Guardian]
- Seattle’s best place to get a parking ticket [ST]
- Fighting traffic tickets: Seattle startup’s ‘Off the Record’ app boasts 97% success rate [GW]
- Robot vs. Meter Maid: Virtual Assistant Helps Motorists Fight — and Overturn — Parking Tickets [WSJ]