NHP launching thermal imaging van to curb issues with unsafe trucks

By Noble Brigham Las Vegas Review-Journal

1 day ago

Ralph Camacho, a production technician at Drivewyze, demonstrates how a thermal imaging camera is used as a truck passes through the Sloan Truck Weigh Station, on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. The camera utilizes a mobile platform with advanced technology capabilities that provide tools designed to assist Nevada State Police Highway Patrol Commercial Motor Vehicle Troopers to be more efficient by having the ability to identify high risk motor carriers, protecting Nevadans. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @bizutesfaye

A truck drives past a thermal imaging camera at the Sloan Truck Weigh Station during a demonstration, on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. The camera utilizes a mobile platform with advanced technology capabilities that provide tools designed to assist Nevada State Police Highway Patrol Commercial Motor Vehicle Troopers to be more efficient by having the ability to identify high risk motor carriers, protecting Nevadans. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @bizutesfaye

Lt. Tappan Cornmesser of the Nevada Highway Patrol speaks about the Thermal Imaging Van during a demonstration at the Sloan Truck Weigh Station, on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024. The camera utilizes a mobile platform with advanced technology capabilities that provide tools designed to assist Nevada State Police Highway Patrol Commercial Motor Vehicle Troopers to be more efficient by having the ability to identify high risk motor carriers, protecting Nevadans. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @bizutesfaye

This week, the Nevada Highway Patrol will begin using a thermal imaging van that officials hope will help the agency focus on the most problematic trucks and perhaps even combat human trafficking.

The Highway Patrol demonstrated the van Monday at an inspection site off Interstate 15. It comes with sophisticated technology including a license plate reader and a thermal imaging camera.

Like other states, “our staff is not as robust as we would prefer,” Lt. Tappan Cornmesser said. “This allows us to be as efficient as possible.”

Cornmesser said the project was funded by a federal grant awarded in 2022 and follows similar vans in states such as Arizona. The van was completed Saturday and NHP will begin using it later in the week after training. A second van will arrive in the next several months.

Each van costs more than $700,000, including all the technology, and the entire bill was covered by the federal grant, he said.

They can be used at an inspection site or other places where there are issues.

The van has a license plate reader in the front and a thermal imaging camera in the back. It’s designed for two people — who could be civilians or troopers — one operating the thermal imaging camera and another monitoring a separate set of screens, Cornmesser said.

The system uses federal databases to pull information such as safety scores for trucks. The thermal camera can also measure axle temperature to see if it’s overheated or nonfunctioning.

Based on that data, staff can radio to flag the truck for an inspection.

Cornmesser said the system cannot see through walls but is able to detect “heat anomalies.” That could indicate that humans are in the trailer and trafficking is occurring, he said.

Asked about potential privacy concerns, Fred Ko, a founder of Drivewyze, which designed the technology the system uses, said the technology uses information from sources that are already public and looks at the truck, not the driver.

Cornmesser initially said he didn’t think the system had an artificial intelligence component.

But Ko said artificial intelligence does play a role. “That’s how we create the rules to identify what we consider, or what we dub as high-risk vehicles,” he said.

AI could provide an alert that there’s a mismatch between the license plate and the Department of Transportation number for example, according to Ko.

Cornmesser said he might have initially misspoken.

“I just know, in the traditional sense of AI, we don’t use it in the screening efforts,” he said. “So none of our decisions to pull a truck in or not, we don’t use AI to make that decision.”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.