'Trillions of Images' a Month. Flock Wants In

Hey there, Joseph here. Flock, the automatic license plate reader (ALPR) surveillance firm, is looking to partner with a consumer dashcam company whose customers generate trillions of images a month. In other words, that ordinary dashcam in your car (in this case, made by a popular brand called Nexar) could soon be integrated with a company providing data to DHS and police. Nexar actually publishes a live map of photos taken by its users and sells data from them already. The full story follows below.

Flock, the surveillance company with automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras in thousands of communities around the U.S., is looking to integrate with a company that makes AI-powered dashcams placed inside peoples’ personal cars, multiple sources told 404 Media. The move could significantly increase the amount of data available to Flock, and in turn its law enforcement customers. 404 Media previously reported local police perform immigration-related Flock lookups for ICE, and on Monday that Customs and Border Protection had direct access to Flock’s systems. In essence, a partnership between Flock and a dashcam company could turn private vehicles into always-on, roaming surveillance tools.

Nexar, the dashcam company, already publicly publishes a live interactive map of photos taken from its dashcams around the U.S., in what the company describes as “crowdsourced vision,” showing the company is willing to leverage data beyond individual customers using the cameras to protect themselves in the event of an accident. 

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“Dash cams have evolved from a device for die-hard enthusiasts or large fleets, to a mainstream product. They are cameras on wheels and are at the crux of novel vision applications using edge AI,” Nexar’s website says. The website adds Nexar customers drive 150 million miles a month, generating “trillions of images.”

The news comes during a period of expansion for Flock. Earlier this month the company announced it would add AI to its products to let customers use natural language to surface data while investigating crimes. Flock also planned to use hacked data in a new product called ‘Nova’ to help police “jump from LPR to person.” Flock scrapped those plans after 404 Media revealed them and internal pressure.

Two sources described the Flock and Nexar partnership as an integration in the early stages. 404 Media granted the sources anonymity as they weren’t permitted to speak to the press. Flock told 404 Media in an email that it is exploring a relationship with Nexar, and that it currently does not have a product offering with them.

Nexar sells a variety of dashcams for a few hundred dollars each, according to its website. Those cameras can provide a front, cabin, and rear view, and in some cases provide “clear license plate capture with Full HD video.” The cameras also record the vehicle’s precise GPS location. Nexar markets the dashcams to “casual drivers,” “long-distance drivers,” “commuters,” and “rideshare” drivers.

“It's like having eyes all around your vehicle—perfect for anyone who wants complete situational awareness and security,” Nexar’s website reads.

Screenshots from Nexar's publicly available map.

Broadly, people buy dashcams to record their own trips in case they get into a car accident, or if they are a rideshare driver to ensure the safety of themselves and their passengers. Some form of partnership with Flock, whose business is built on recording where vehicles, and by extension people, were at a specific point in time and then provide access to that data to law enforcement, could change that customer relationship.

Nexar’s CityStream Live product already takes images captured by its users’ dashcams, publishes versions of them online, and uses AI to identify objects in them. That map displays photos related to things such as road hazards, no left turn and yield signs, and traffic cones, with the respective vehicle’s precise location at that time.

Faces and license plates are blurred in that public facing map. Customers, such as fleet managers, autonomous vehicle companies, or public agencies, can then pay Nexar for access to the data. Nexar’s website says that data is sourced from 700,000 vehicles. 

At the moment, Flock’s business is based on stationary cameras that communities or law enforcement agencies purchase and have installed in their neighborhoods. It is not clear how exactly any use of Nexar data by Flock would work, both in a technical and legal sense. Some states have laws restricting the use of ALPRs, for example. 

Other ALPR companies have used dashcams to collect license plate data for years. Digital Recognition Network (DRN), for example, is a private company that crowdsources license plate data through cameras installed in the vehicles of repo men. A private investigator previously demonstrated that tool to me and tracked a specific vehicle with the owner’s consent. It showed the car parked outside their house; in another state when the driver went to visit their family, and parked in other spots around their home city. DRN’s sister company is Vigilant Solutions, a law enforcement contractor that sells the same technology to the government.  

A Nexar executive did not respond to a request for comment sent over LinkedIn. Nexar did not respond to emails sent to its media and marketing departments either.

Jason Koebler contributed reporting.