AI cameras for €88 million: officials’ appetites derailed the deal

In Greece installation competition canceled 1,000 AI cameras for automatic recording of violations Traffic Code.

Project costing approx. 88.1 million euros was supposed to become part of the new digital control system, but in the end stumbled over complaints, controversial conditions and a price that looked excessive even for Greek government procurement.

Formally, the discussion was about the purchase, installation, operation and maintenance of “smart” cameras associated with a digital violation processing system Ελληνική Αστυνομία (ΕΛ.ΑΣ., Greek police). But with a total cost of 88.1 million euros one camera together with related services actually cost approximately 88,000 euros.

It’s the price became the main stop valve. No one claims that speech already proven we are talking about a rollback: this requires investigation materials and decisions from the competent authorities. But when procurement for public safety turns out to be so expensive, the public has the right to ask a simple question: is this a calculation error, managerial incompetence or an attempt to include someone’s interests in the estimate?

Not the first alarming tender

The story with AI cameras does not look like an isolated episode. Shortly before this Court of Auditors of Greece (Ελεγκτικό Συνέδριο) blocked a large contract for the purchase of firefighting aircraft Air Tractor. There were also questions about the terms and cost of the purchase.

Firefighting aircraft must protect the country from fire. AI cameras – against traffic violations. But in both cases, control mechanisms were faced not with the idea of ​​procurement itself, but with its implementation: price, conditions and design of the competition. When such stories repeat themselves, it is no longer a technical accident, but a symptom of the system.

In government contracts, overpricing almost always leads to the same vexing question: who should have received the extra money and for what exactly? Formally, we can talk about controversial conditions of the competition. Essentially, it’s about a possible corruption component that control mechanisms managed to stop before the deal was completed.

The high price of AI road cameras alone is not automatically means corruption: Such systems include not only the camera, but also installation, maintenance, warranty and integration with the fine system. However, even taking these costs into account, the cost is approx. 88,000 euros per unit looks overestimated at least several times.

On the market, individual license plate recognition cameras are an order of magnitude cheaper, while complex road control systems usually become more expensive due to infrastructure and back-office. Therefore, the key question is not that the camera cannot be expensive. The question is: why when purchasing immediately? 1,000 units the final cost turned out to be so high that the competition itself was blocked after complaints and inspections?

When the system’s appetite played into the hands of drivers

There is an almost Greek irony to the story: a system that could have become a digital nightmare for drivers was stopped not by public outcry, not by a parliamentary debate about privacy or by a sudden respect for citizens’ rights. She was stopped by her own cost.

The AI ​​camera project could turn roads into a network of constant automatic control: speed, seat belt, phone, running red, license plates, routes. But before the state could deploy this infrastructure, the procurement began to fall apart under the weight of its own estimates.

Thus, Greek drivers received a rare gift from the very bureaucracy that usually only complicates their lives. The excessive price and too controversial conditions temporarily stopped the system, which was supposed to look at citizens every day from every intersection.

“Predator is expensive” without spyware

Supporters of the project can talk about road safety, and there is a rational grain in this. Violations KΟK indeed remain a serious problem. But modern AI cameras are more than just photographic recording of speed. Such systems are capable of recognizing license plates, analyzing driver behavior, recording the use of a phone or seat belt, and transmitting data to a centralized system.

And here comes the big question: where does road safety end and surveillance infrastructure begin? Today the camera records the violation. Tomorrow she stores the routes. The day after tomorrow, this data may be useful not only to the traffic police, but also to other departments.

That is why in the Greek discussion such cameras are already called “Predator roads”. The only difference is that there is no need for a secret virus on the phone: the state gets a legal surveillance network placed directly above the roads.

Editorial comment

The story with AI cameras shows two diseases of the Greek state: the love of expensive digital projects and the habit of introducing control technologies before citizens are explained how their rights will be protected.

After such a story, not only a new competition should begin, but also a check of the entire logic of the previous purchase: who prepared the technical specifications, who agreed on the cost, why the parameters caused complaints and why the final price looked so inflated.

Officially, we can talk about controversial conditions and the need for a new procedure. But the public conclusion is simpler: the purchasing appetite turned out to be so great that it blocked the project. Greek drivers were protected this time not by human rights activists or political wisdom, but by the excessive cost of the system that was supposed to monitor them.

Road safety should not become a cover for opaque contracts and the construction of mass surveillance infrastructure. If the state wants to see everything that happens on the roads, citizens have the right to see everything that happens in public procurement. And preferably without artificial intelligence – ordinary honesty would be enough for a start.

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