AI in Russia Tows Illegally Parked Cars From Lawns and Sidewalks
In the Moscow Region, artificial intelligence is being used to improve parking enforcement and identify repeat offenders.
Authorities in the Moscow Region have begun using a neural network to tackle systematic parking violations. The system operates on cameras from Bezopasny Region (Safe Region), which are installed in areas where vehicles are regularly parked in prohibited locations.
AI Calls the Tow Truck
The AI analyzes live video feeds from the cameras. Its algorithms detect parking on road shoulders, pedestrian crossings, and in zones where vehicles obstruct traffic. When violations occur repeatedly and at scale in the same location, that area is added to the operational plan for tow trucks. This allows enforcement teams to deploy equipment not randomly, but precisely where the problem is persistent. In effect, a neural network now plays a role in planning towing operations.
Clear Results
Over a four-month period, the system identified more than 580 hotspots of systematic illegal parking. A total of 250 vehicles were towed, and parking congestion was completely eliminated in 44 locations.
Nadezhda Kurtyanik, the Moscow Region’s minister for public administration, information technologies, and communications, said artificial intelligence is becoming a reliable tool in the fight against illegal parking.
According to Kurtyanik, repeat violations are no longer recorded in areas covered by the system.
Marat Sibatulin, the region’s minister of transport and road infrastructure, said the impact of the technology is already visible.
“The new system has made it possible to quickly identify parking congestion hotspots and improve traffic flow on affected road sections,” he said.
Similar tools are now being introduced in other regions. In Moscow, computer vision algorithms have long been used to record stopping and parking violations. In Kazan and St. Petersburg, AI helps analyze street congestion and the performance of towing services. Regional authorities say its use reduces the number of resident complaints and shortens response times without increasing the number of inspectors.
In road management, neural networks are emerging as a tool that helps authorities identify problems more precisely and clear streets faster of congestion caused by parking violations.
