HeFei Debuts “Unmanned Police Vehicle” to Crack Down on Illegal Roadside Parking

Kuai Technology reported on January 24 that, according to CCTV News, several roads in Hefei’s High-Tech Industrial Development Zone (Anhui Province) have recently introduced a new blue-and-white autonomous patrol vehicle. Equipped with police warning lights and gimbal-mounted cameras, the driverless unit is designed to support smarter, more efficient management of illegal roadside parking.

In real-world operation, the system follows a clear, step-by-step workflow: “identify first, remind next, then penalize.” Because of this process, many local residents have nicknamed it the “unmanned traffic police car.”

In fact, the device has been in service since March last year. It covers more than 40 kilometers of patrol distance per day and is currently deployed mainly around the Shuxihu area in Hefei’s High-Tech Zone.

The goal is to create a closed-loop approach to handling illegal parking—detecting violations through mobile inspections, issuing immediate warnings, encouraging drivers to move, and ultimately enabling enforcement when necessary.

Officially known as an “autonomous intelligent patrol vehicle,” the unit can patrol independently along pre-set routes. Using a 360-degree perception system mounted on the vehicle, it can automatically identify illegally parked cars along the roadside.

Once a violation is detected, the patrol vehicle first captures photographic evidence. It then broadcasts a voice alert through its onboard loudspeaker, informing the driver that the behavior has been recorded and requesting the vehicle to leave immediately. At the same time, the system sends a reminder text message to the registered phone number linked to the vehicle owner.

If the vehicle passes the same location again roughly 10 minutes later and the illegally parked car remains, it will take a second photo as additional supporting evidence.

All collected materials are uploaded to the backend system. Only after traffic police officers manually review and confirm the case can the evidence be legally used for non-contact enforcement and entered into the penalty system.