Tech Desk 
Nov 21, 2025
An image shows faceless e-challan cameras set up at PIDC, Karachi, taken on November 9, 2025. — Picture by author
Karachi Police are taking traffic enforcement a step further with robot cars equipped with automated cameras to issue fines for no-parking violations in the city’s busiest commercial areas.
The vehicles will begin patrolling key markets like Saddar and Tariq Road in the first phase of the rollout.
Karachi Police robot cars
Geo News quoted Traffic Admin Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Kashif Nadeem as saying that the robot cars move at about 20 km/h and scan the roads continuously.
Any car or motorcycle found to be double-parked or in a no-parking area gets an e-ticket without requiring an on-ground police officer. At present, fines for no-parking violations stand at Rs 10,000 for cars and Rs 2,000 for motorcycles.
It follows the launch of the Traffic Regulation and Citation System (TRACS), which replaced the outdated, manual ticketing process with an AI-integrated e-challan system.
Advanced closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras used by TRACS detect violations like speeding, red-light jumping, and helmet non-compliance.
The DSP further elucidated that these new robot cars would be able to operate independently after some time, detecting and ticketing illegally parked vehicles without any human intervention.
However, the e-challan system faced criticism from day one. Several citizens reported receiving fines for vehicles that were stolen or for minor violations that they said did not occur.
One bike owner, for instance, got an e-ticket for Rs 5,000 for not wearing a helmet even as he had reported the same bike stolen many years ago from the police premises. Another citizen found mismatched number plates on an e-challan being sent to him.
