Bengaluru police DMs techie who used AI helmet to record traffic violators: 'We found the idea...'

In the message Bengaluru techie Pankaj Tanwar shared, the police department conveyed its willingness to engage further, stating it wanted 'the opportunity to understand' the specifics of his concept. (Image credit: Pankaj Tanwar/X)

• Bengaluru techie Pankaj Tanwar, who built an AI‑powered helmet that records traffic violations and emails proof to police, went viral online and later revealed that Bengaluru City Police contacted him after seeing his post. The AI helmet sparked massive interest, drawing praise, privacy debates, and offers from developers and investors to help scale the innovation.

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The Bengaluru City Police has directly contacted software developer Pankaj Tanwar, whose AI‑enabled helmet — designed to flag traffic violations in real time and email photographic proof to the authorities — went viral over the weekend. Tanwar shared the update on X on Sunday, writing, “OMG. Office of the Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru reached out,” along with a screenshot of the official message.

The Bengaluru City Police, through its verified handle, confirmed it had reviewed Tanwar’s widely circulated demonstration and was interested in understanding the technology further. In the message addressed to “Mr Pankaj,” the department said it found his helmet‑based traffic‑violation detection concept “innovative and interesting from a road safety perspective.”

In the message Tanwar shared, the police department conveyed its willingness to engage further, stating it wanted “the opportunity to understand” the specifics of his concept.

OMG. office of the commissioner of police, blr reached out  https://t.co/WywqGXuvj8pic.twitter.com/jOkOOctWNN

— Pankaj (@the2ndfloorguy) January 4, 2026

Techie’s AI helmet hack continues to draw massive attention

Tanwar’s original post — which garnered more than two million views and accused Bengaluru roads of being chaotic and filled with “stupid people” — showcased his DIY innovation: a helmet fitted with a dashcam and a locally running AI agent. The system identifies violations, extracts number plates, tags time and location, and sends evidence directly to the official email IDs of the traffic police — without any manual input. 

The video of the prototype instantly flagging a helmetless rider contributed to the post amassing more than eight lakh views. Users online hailed the initiative, calling it “peak Bengaluru tech,” while actor Kunal Kapoor responded, “Brilliant! Want one, even though I drive.”

i was tired of stupid people on road so i hacked my helmet into a traffic police device while i ride, ai agent runs in near real time, flags violations, and proof with location & no plate goes straight to police. blr people - so now ride safe… or regret it. pic.twitter.com/lWaRO01Jaq — Pankaj (@the2ndfloorguy) January 3, 2026

Praise, privacy Concerns, and offers to scale up

Online reactions have included both admiration and scepticism. While developers, founders, and investors praised the potential for improving civic enforcement, others questioned the implications of crowdsourced surveillance. Still, several industry professionals reached out, offering to help turn the innovation into a scalable product or integrate it with broader camera networks.

Suggestions ranged from cloud‑connected dashcam systems to offering citizens a share of challan amounts for verified reports.

"That’s a fantastic idea! Maybe the dashcams can be hooked to a cloud service, and if a state gives 10 percent of challan incentive given to the person whose dashcam reported incident, good reason for people to sign up," said one X user, while another added, "Dear Pankajji, I would love to buy copies of this from you and gift to my friends. Where can I buy it? Please consider selling it online and I promise to buy and gift five to my family. Please also configure this to work outside Bengaluru, in Delhi etc."

Some also proposed linking the system to government platforms like mParivahan for quicker challan generation, while developers offered technical input on SDR modules and Raspberry Pi optimisation.

Tanwar says it was a fun weekend project

Despite the attention, Tanwar reiterated that the project was built “purely for fun,” describing it as one of his “weird, fun weekend experiments.” His past work includes hardware hacks, scripts, extensions and local AI/ML projects, many of which he showcases on his personal blog.