And it was. The rollout was supposed to be complete by sometime in 2023 and then it transitioned to a support/audit roll. Like everything government, the deadline was blown.
MTO DriveON Safety Inspection Updates
- Thread starter GreyGhost
- Start date
A flipside of having to photo-document everything relating to the inspection is that it also photo-documents compliance. Pretty hard for a shop to say "your brake pads are worn out" when the picture clearly shows that they're not.
Unless of course the mechanic has a set of well worn pads tucked up his sleeve for the 'ol switcheroo.
At this point I trust nobody; least of which a government run program.
That's a lot of effort to both stock a wide selection of worn pads and pull calipers to get them in.
I don't know for sure, but my suspicion is the pictures will show the passes not the fails. If you fail, there is no need to break out the tablet.
On The flip side.
The mechanic could also have a stash of "good" pads to put on there for picture taking purposes but then put back the questionable ones.
Not saying that that is worth their time but I could see it happening.
Also, Could they just upload a photo from a similar vehicle from a previous inspection? I would think not but you never know.
I considered that too. Pads are cheaper than labour though. If they tried it with heavy trucks, a roadside inspector would catch on pretty quick that shoes were new last week and are now completely shot.
Last edited:
This is supposed to be done using a MTO-issued tablet, and presumably they would leave the EXIF data intact. This whole deal is happening because of shady inspections passing things that shouldn't.
Agreed. Lets hope it lives up to the governments expectation.
I think I read or heard that each shop is supposed to get ONE tablet.
Wonder what their backup plan is if that tablet fails or is broken? Does that mean that this particular shop cannot issue safeties?
Once it is actually working it is a good start to improve the current situation. I reality the bad actors will find ways to defeat it, maybe not right away but they will. It is an arm's race and as we go forward holes need to be plugged as they come up. Hopefully the people running the program are smart enough to do so???
They MUST have one, they can buy more if they want. Mississauga was buying 13. As you can't do a safety without it, I can't imagine many shops that just have one. Even if the mechanics always use the same one, I'd have a second locked up in case the primary was damaged or had any issues. I can't just grab a new tablet from the store down the road.
A picture of a picture gives you clean exif data. A little complicated to make it look realistic though. As people game the system, I can see the rules changing a bit. Something like a watch in the picture showing date/time or write the last three characters of vin on parts in picture which would grossly complicate picture of a picture scams.
