MapQuest Ditches Directions, Hands Drivers an LPR Treasure Map 🗺️

MapQuest has added a "Surveillance Layer" to its mobile app that flags the locations of automated license plate readers from Flock Safety and competing vendors, the company announced on Bluesky. The toggle, listed in Map Options, plots cameras from Motorola Solutions' Vigilant, Genetec, Axis Communications, Axon, Leonardo's ELSAG, Neology, Rekor, PlateSmart, Ubicquia, Verkada and other outdoor surveillance systems. "The Roads Have Eyes!" the company wrote in its post. A demo video showed clusters of eye-shaped icons around Los Angeles' Marina del Rey neighborhood, each paired with a red cone indicating the direction the camera faces. MapQuest did not specify the source of its location data.

License plate readers photograph passing vehicles and convert plates into searchable data. Flock's AI-powered cameras additionally log make, model, color and bumper stickers, and the devices can be networked so agencies across the country can share access. MapQuest did not say whether its routing feature accounts for cameras that have not been identified.

The launch comes as bipartisan scrutiny of Flock intensifies. Earlier this month Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced the Ban Flock Act, which would prohibit federal agencies from using the technology. That proposal follows Sanders' late August call to "stop Flock and AI mass surveillance." Also in late August, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state agencies to halt funding for Flock cameras after the Texas Tribune reported a state agency had directed at least $30 million to the network. Flock CEO Garrett Langley has urged Americans to compromise on privacy in exchange for safety.