A guitar became an unexpected traffic violator in Bengaluru after an AI-powered camera mistook it for a helmetless pillion rider and issued a Rs 500 challan.
Souvik Dutta was riding his wife's two-wheeler alone, wearing a helmet and going about his journey, when an AI-enabled traffic camera apparently detected a pillion rider without a helmet. The supposed passenger was actually the guitar strapped to Souvik's back.
Souvik took to X to highlight the obvious error in the system's logic.
“I was riding my wife's two-wheeler alone with my guitar slung on my back in Bangalore,” he wrote, tagging the Bengaluru Traffic Police and requesting that the challan be cancelled.
The evidence attached to the notice made the incident even more amusing. The image clearly showed Souvik wearing a helmet, with his guitar positioned behind him. There was no second person on the bike, unless the AI had come up with an unusually broad interpretation of the word “pillion”.
Dutta also posted a copy of the challan, which had been issued to his wife's account.
Bengaluru Traffic Police replied to his post and asked him to have the fine cancelled.
That might have been the end of the matter, but social media had other ideas.
The post soon made its way to Reddit, where users had plenty of fun with the AI's unusual reading of the photograph. Some joked about “Guitar lives matter”, while others poked fun at the supposed intelligence powering the traffic camera.
And the guitar certainly had a strong defence. It had no hands with which to hold a helmet, no head on which to place one and, as far as anyone knows, no plans to ride pillion.
The incident added another unusual traffic story to Bengaluru's collection, although this time the alleged offender was not a reckless motorist but a six-stringed instrument.
AI may be keeping a close watch on Bengaluru's roads, but perhaps it now needs to be taught how to tell a guitar apart from a pillion rider.
