Proving that chatbots can actually be useful in real life, an automated lawyer chatbot has successfully challenged 160,000 parking tickets in London and New York.

DoNotPay uses artificial intelligence to discuss the circumstances of the parking ticket with those who have received one, asking questions such as if there were clearly visible parking signs and then guides users through the process of lodging an appeal to the ticket using publicly available information.

The 160,000 successful appeals are out of 250,000 seen, a success rate of a 64 percent, and is believed to have saved drivers around $2.5 million in fines.

Perhaps even more remarkably, the service is completely free.

“I think the people getting parking tickets are the most vulnerable in society,” 19-year-old founder  Joshua Browder told VentureBeat. “These people aren’t looking to break the law. I think they’re being exploited as a revenue source by the local government.”

Browder, a self-taught coder, created the bot after receiving 30 parking tickets at the age of 18, making him somewhat of an expert on being ticketed.

The service initially launched in London last year followed by New York in March, with Seattle to follow later this year.

Expansion

With the success of the bot in appealing parking fines, Browder has expanded the service to provide assistance to people seeking flight delay compensation, as well as helping people who are HIV positive understand their rights.

Browder is also exploring a guide for refugees navigating foreign legal systems that will use IBM’s Watson platform to translate English to Arabic.

“I feel like there’s a gold mine of opportunities because so many services and information could be automated using AI, and bots are a perfect way to do that, and it’s disappointing at the moment that it’s mainly used for commerce transactions by ordering flowers and pizzas,” Browder added.

If you live in London or New York and wish to appeal a parking ticket, visit DoNotPay.com, signup up, and then follow the prompts; the system will tell you if you have grounds to appeal and how to do so.

Image credit: jlmaral/Flickr/CC by 2.0