“If they could use hand-knitted computer code to make a frictionless re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere in 1969, we can solve the problem of frictionless trade at the Northern Irish border. There are few tasks so complex that humanity cannot solve if we have a real sense of mission to pull them off. We have the technological solutions.”
– Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1 August 2019 (Chania, Crete) – Most of my readers will recognise the name Mark Sugrue, CTO and cofounder of Kinesense. I have noted the company in past posts. It is a computer vision and video analytics company based in Dublin, Ireland that is one of largest suppliers of computer vision products to the UK police, and also to members of the law enforcement community in Europe, and it is their technology that is used to search CCTV content in the course of criminal investigations. The technology is a combination of motion detection and deep learning algorithms that have been adapted for CCTV analysis. It is also the company that developed blockchain technology for chain of evidence. I hope to do a video interview with them this fall.
So Mark has taken a look at the “technological solution” possibility vis-vis the Brexit backstop and he suggests there are some … ah … issues. He has put together a photo montage. The captions are all his 🙂
Part of the north-bound lane of the M1 motorway is in the UK.
This industrial yard is split by the border.
Here the camera is in the UK and pointing towards the south. You can see the Irish border as a line in the road where the surface quality improves.
There is a section of the Irish Border where the border runs down the middle of the road. East-bound lane is EU. West-bound is UK. Would love to see how Boris Johnson technology can solve that.
This nice house is in Ireland, but driveway starts in the UK. There is no other way in.
The Irish border cuts this vehicle hire company’s property in half. I hope they are ready for the extra paperwork.
Two more very nice houses in Ireland with driveways starting in the UK. From 1 November many people will need an International Drivers Permit and an insurance ‘Green Card’ to drive out of their properties.
The Brexit Border divides this small lorry park. Why? I doubt anyone remembers. Maybe it made sense in 1922. Maybe not.
A chunk of this random lane is in Ireland for no reason.
Another crazy border issue for Boris’ “technological solutions” to solve
Who drew this border!? Were they high!?
Two farms cut in half. These people will need to be exporting and re-importing their cattle each day after Brexit
A nearby barn is divided by the Brexit border. Can Boris’ technology track farm animals as they move around the barn?
My last one (this goes on forever). Who can figure out this section of the border?