S.H.I.T. cameras removed from 4-car G trains

[GojiMet86]

Vendor in question is Suzhou Huaqi Intelligent Technology. Could not have picked a better acronym.

 

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-g-line-surveillance-cameras-cctv-subway-mta-20210422-pg2jooirajenzjxanowqen53c4-story.html

 

Quote

MTA pulls security cameras from NYC subway train due to vendor’s ties to Chinese facial recognition company
By CLAYTON GUSE
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
APR 22, 2021 AT 7:03 PM


The MTA on Thursday abruptly halted a program to test new security cameras on subway cars — a day after the Daily News raised questions about the ties the company providing the technology has to a Chinese firm that specializes in facial recognition technology.

Transit managers last week sent a memo to subway crews alerting them of new video cameras installed on a four-car G line train. The new tech is part of a years-long effort by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to improve security and put more eyes underground.

The test program installed four cameras in each of the cars, as well a system that operated the train’s digital signage and intercoms, the memo states.

The cameras began monitoring passengers on the G line train last Thursday — and MTA officials planned to keep them there for a year to see how they worked.

But the vendor contracted to provide the system’s technology — Suzhou Huaqi Intelligent Technology — raised major security flags that prompted officials to suddenly pull the camera-filled train from service on Thursday.

The company in the first quarter of 2019 was acquired by Bii Railway Transportation Technology, a Chinese company that has ties to the country’s government and listed facial recognition technology among its specialties in its 2019 annual report.

MTA officials said they signed a deal with Suzhou Huaqi to test the cameras in January 2019, before the company’s acquisition was finalized. The agreement to test the technology for a year came at no cost to the agency and did not require approval from its board, officials said.

MTA spokesman Ken Lovett said transit honchos were not aware of the test cameras until The News began asking questions about Bii Railway on Wednesday.

“This short-term test and evaluation was designed to determine whether the equipment would meet New York City Transit requirements to qualify as a potential approved system for future subway car procurements,” said Lovett.

“Once leadership became aware of the test program, and questions were raised about control of this particular company, we ended the evaluation.”

It’s unclear whether the cameras ran on software that employed facial recognition technology. MTA chairman Pat Foye said “no facial recognition” was used in any subway security cameras during a news conference Wednesday.

A federal government source could not immediately tell The News whether Suzhou Huaqi or Bii Railway were subject to active inquiries by national security authorities.

But the source noted “the MTA’s plans to potentially move forward with this pilot initiative stand a very good chance of sounding alarm bells with the National Security Agency.”

MTA officials have over the last two years expanded the number of security cameras installed in subway stations and platforms — and plan to have nearly the whole system monitored by the end of the year.

The agency has no timeline to put cameras on every subway train — but transit officials said they’ve required all future subway cars the agency purchases to come equipped with CCTV.

The cameras in stations and platforms do not run on the same technology as the ones yanked from the G train, officials said.

It’s not the first time in recent years the MTA has run afoul with the feds over its relationships with Chinese companies.

Congress and former President Donald Trump in 2019 passed a measure in a defense spending bill that prohibits transit agencies from receiving federal subsidies for rail car purchases from China Railway Rolling Stock Corp., a company owned by the Chinese government.

The company was a winner of the MTA’s “Genius Transit Challenge” contest launched by Gov. Cuomo in 2017, and was awarded $330,000 for a proposal to design a lightweight, wifi-equipped subway car for the New York, and promised to invest $50 million of its own money in the project.

The ban on Chinese rail car purchases does not go into effect until 2022 — and the Chicago Transit Authority this week began testing a new series of subway cars purchased from the company.

 

[Lawrence St]

An R68 with digital signs and announcements? What set was this??

[danielhg121]

31 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

An R68 with digital signs and announcements? What set was this??

2860-62

[NoHacksJustKhaks]

Quote

MTA officials said they signed a deal with Suzhou Huaqi to test the cameras in January 2019, before the company’s acquisition was finalized. The agreement to test the technology for a year came at no cost to the agency and did not require approval from its board, officials said.

 So this is why we got those cameras/CCTV then. What a surprise, MTA sees a freebie option and jumps for it. This is just another lazy half-step towards putting better technology in the cars, to me it ain't much else. 

Besides that acronym. I'm also  at the G-train image the Guse used for this article, looks like Smith/9th before it was renovated. Who gives these reporters such old pics of the system? Lol...

[Gotham Bus Co.]

4 hours ago, GojiMet86 said:

Vendor in question is Suzhou Huaqi Intelligent Technology. Could not have picked a better acronym.

 

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-g-line-surveillance-cameras-cctv-subway-mta-20210422-pg2jooirajenzjxanowqen53c4-story.html

 

Maybe they should have gone with the Springfield Heights Institute of Technology. 

[B35 via Church]

Quote

The company was a winner of the MTA’s “Genius Transit Challenge” contest launched by Gov. Cuomo in 2017, and was awarded $330,000 for a proposal to design a lightweight, wifi-equipped subway car for the New York, and promised to invest $50 million of its own money in the project.

Whatever happened with this anyway?

[bobtehpanda]

3 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

Whatever happened with this anyway?

mostly a whole lotta nothin

which is pretty par for the course, unless it's the Buffalo Billion and some of the governor's advisors get arrested for corruption

[XcelsiorBoii4888]

The majority of yall still dont understand what the CCP is doing to America. This is nothing short of that. Why you think it was free at charge and needed no approval? I'm just fake news though...my post will get debunked soon anyways with "manipulative logic". 

Edited April 24, 2021 by XcelsiorBoii4888

[R10 2952]

I see what you're saying; I guess the root of the problem is everybody wants 'better security' on the trains and buses, but I don't see anybody examining the other side of that coin-massive surveillance.  As a society, we've normalized it to the point that people don't think twice about being monitored at almost every step they take in public. 

[Deucey]

6 hours ago, R10 2952 said:

I see what you're saying; I guess the root of the problem is everybody wants 'better security' on the trains and buses, but I don't see anybody examining the other side of that coin-massive surveillance.  As a society, we've normalized it to the point that people don't think twice about being monitored at almost every step they take in public. 

But the now-Trumpsters said during the Bush years that this was necessary otherwise the "terrorists win."

 

[R10 2952]

The Bush Junior years alone are why I've never voted Republican; had McCain succeeded him in 2008, those demagogues would've probably tried to invade Iran, give even more tax cuts to the wealthy, and turned the FBI into some sort of American Gestapo.

[Deucey]

7 hours ago, R10 2952 said:

The Bush Junior years alone are why I've never voted Republican; had McCain succeeded him in 2008, those demagogues would've probably tried to invade Iran, give even more tax cuts to the wealthy, and turned the FBI into some sort of American Gestapo.

Instead they did it at the state level. Police have always been Gestapo if you're Black or Latino - Civil Rights Era and before showed that.

[aemoreira81]

I thought the OP was making a cursing post. Then I saw the company name...! That said, there are other non-Chinese vendors who could have done the job better. Interlogix is out since they exited North America, but Bosch is still a possibility. (If federal money was involved, there is no way S.H.I.T. could have been allowed to bid.)

Also, regarding the ban on Chinese railcar purchases, is that still in effect, or did Biden pull it?

Edited May 12, 2021 by aemoreira81

[bobtehpanda]

On 5/12/2021 at 10:55 AM, aemoreira81 said:

I thought the OP was making a cursing post. Then I saw the company name...! That said, there are other non-Chinese vendors who could have done the job better. Interlogix is out since they exited North America, but Bosch is still a possibility. (If federal money was involved, there is no way S.H.I.T. could have been allowed to bid.)

Also, regarding the ban on Chinese railcar purchases, is that still in effect, or did Biden pull it?

Biden's administration is not pro-China, they're just not noisy about it. Trump had a habit of pulling out the China card to bury bad news coming out at the same time.

The official stance has not actually changed and protectionism against China is pretty much bipartisan.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

12 minutes ago, bobtehpanda said:

Biden's administration is not pro-China, they're just not noisy about it. Trump had a habit of pulling out the China card to bury bad news coming out at the same time.

The official stance has not actually changed and protectionism against China is pretty much bipartisan.

And the "woke media" hates it. It's a good thing... The U.S. needs to make more things here. The pandemic made that abundantly clear. 

[jammerbot]

On 4/24/2021 at 11:25 AM, XcelsiorBoii4888 said:

The majority of yall still dont understand what the CCP is doing to America. This is nothing short of that. Why you think it was free at charge and needed no approval? I'm just fake news though...my post will get debunked soon anyways with "manipulative logic". 

Meaningless China bashing. I agree with Via Garibaldi 8 that we need to manufacture more things here, but I think "CCP is taking over America" is two hops and a skip away from far right conspiracy thinking.

[engineerboy6561]

On 7/29/2021 at 7:04 PM, jammerbot said:

Meaningless China bashing. I agree with Via Garibaldi 8 that we need to manufacture more things here, but I think "CCP is taking over America" is two hops and a skip away from far right conspiracy thinking.

I wouldn't say they're taking over America; I would say that they've gotten the hang of using soft power/favorable loan terms/etc. to create client states the same way the US did post-WWII; we used to have that kind of soft power as a country but we spent it all in two twenty-year wars and a pile of other stupid mistakes that trashed our international credibility (and rebuilding it is gonna be hard as hell. I firmly believe that we need to manufacture more things over here because there's real value in self-sufficiency, and massive international supply chains have to be really tightly managed to work well, and are susceptible to system shocks (see the ongoing and intensifying chip shortage; I think we found the resonant frequency of the global electronics supply chain and it may take years to settle back down).

[R10 2952]

Exactly, the U.S. having massive GDP yet a very eroded manufacturing base, is both an embarrassment and an impediment to self-suffciency.

The casino that is Wall Street and the financial services sector should not be the sole pillar of support for our economy.

Edited September 18, 2021 by R10 2952