{"id":44691,"topic":"ai","source":"ABC15 Arizona","title":"Mesa tests artificial intelligence on garbage trucks to boost safety - ABC15 Arizona","url":"https://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-tests-artificial-intelligence-on-garbage-trucks-to-boost-safety","url_hash":"0b35198aadee7d6295d262477f478d692be457d8","author":"","summary":"Mesa tests artificial intelligence on garbage trucks to boost safety ABC15 Arizona","content":"MESA, AZ — The city of Mesa has begun equipping a small number of municipal garbage trucks with artificial intelligence to help reduce accidents and improve worker safety, city officials said.\nThe Occupational Safety and Health Administration says working as a trash collector is among the nation’s most dangerous jobs. Mesa’s fleet of 90 trash trucks serves more than 140,000 residential customers each week, and city officials said there were 95 damage claims related to the department’s garbage trucks between June 2024 and April 2026.\nThree of Mesa’s 90 trucks are currently testing the new AI system, which uses five to seven high-definition cameras mounted on each vehicle to detect people or objects in the truck’s path, officials said. An audible alarm sounded during a recent demonstration.\nPaul Thomas, a Mesa Solid Waste Division safety technician who has driven the trucks for eight years, said the system alerts drivers when a truck’s arm is deployed.\n“If the arm is out while we’re going down the street, an alarm will go off and let you know it’s out so you can prevent getting into an accident,” Thomas said.\nSherri Collins, director of the city’s Solid Waste Division, said she expects the technology to improve further and that it will speed incident reporting to her staff. She noted the cameras currently in use on some trucks are six- to 10-year-old systems.\n“I’m all on board. I think this is such amazing technology. It’s literally taking a 1990s technology and moving it into 2026,” Collins said.\nSafety is the primary reason for adding AI, officials said, including a renewed emphasis on keeping children away from trucks during pickup. Collins cautioned that kids are often fascinated by garbage trucks and urged the public to maintain a safe distance.\nThe pilot program will help the city evaluate whether to expand the technology across the fleet, officials said.\nDisclaimer: Artificial intelligence was used to convert the broadcast version of this script into a text version for publication online.","image_url":"https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/bf44708/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x672+0+24/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcf.cdn.uplynk.com%2Fause1%2Fslices%2F87c%2F5c3d34b8b29a45469a86c02775b7a2cf%2F87c7795e9cab432ba9670f6f95539d8b%2Fposter_65734c433b4746ea847842392960c8c3.jpg","lang":"en","published_at":"2026-07-23T17:39:36+00:00","fetched_at":"2026-07-23T18:15:04+00:00","status":"read","starred":0,"extract_state":"ok","summary_auto":"MESA, AZ — The city of Mesa has begun equipping a small number of municipal garbage trucks with artificial intelligence to help reduce accidents and improve worker safety, city officials said. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says working as a trash collector is among the nation’s most dangerous jobs.","cluster_id":null,"extract_retries":0,"extract_error":null,"contract_version":"news_item.v1","format_contract_version":"news_item_formats.v1","dedup_url":"https://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-tests-artificial-intelligence-on-garbage-trucks-to-boost-safety","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2028 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":2028,"summary_length":319,"usable_text_length":2028,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":2028,"summary_length":319}},"news_item":{"id":44691,"canonical_url":"https://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-tests-artificial-intelligence-on-garbage-trucks-to-boost-safety","source_url":"https://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-tests-artificial-intelligence-on-garbage-trucks-to-boost-safety","title":"Mesa tests artificial intelligence on garbage trucks to boost safety - ABC15 Arizona","source_name":"ABC15 Arizona","author":null,"published_at":"2026-07-23T17:39:36+00:00","locale":"en","topic":"ai","tags":[],"rss_summary":"Mesa tests artificial intelligence on garbage trucks to boost safety ABC15 Arizona","full_text":"MESA, AZ — The city of Mesa has begun equipping a small number of municipal garbage trucks with artificial intelligence to help reduce accidents and improve worker safety, city officials said.\nThe Occupational Safety and Health Administration says working as a trash collector is among the nation’s most dangerous jobs. Mesa’s fleet of 90 trash trucks serves more than 140,000 residential customers each week, and city officials said there were 95 damage claims related to the department’s garbage trucks between June 2024 and April 2026.\nThree of Mesa’s 90 trucks are currently testing the new AI system, which uses five to seven high-definition cameras mounted on each vehicle to detect people or objects in the truck’s path, officials said. An audible alarm sounded during a recent demonstration.\nPaul Thomas, a Mesa Solid Waste Division safety technician who has driven the trucks for eight years, said the system alerts drivers when a truck’s arm is deployed.\n“If the arm is out while we’re going down the street, an alarm will go off and let you know it’s out so you can prevent getting into an accident,” Thomas said.\nSherri Collins, director of the city’s Solid Waste Division, said she expects the technology to improve further and that it will speed incident reporting to her staff. She noted the cameras currently in use on some trucks are six- to 10-year-old systems.\n“I’m all on board. I think this is such amazing technology. It’s literally taking a 1990s technology and moving it into 2026,” Collins said.\nSafety is the primary reason for adding AI, officials said, including a renewed emphasis on keeping children away from trucks during pickup. Collins cautioned that kids are often fascinated by garbage trucks and urged the public to maintain a safe distance.\nThe pilot program will help the city evaluate whether to expand the technology across the fleet, officials said.\nDisclaimer: Artificial intelligence was used to convert the broadcast version of this script into a text version for publication online.","excerpt":"MESA, AZ — The city of Mesa has begun equipping a small number of municipal garbage trucks with artificial intelligence to help reduce accidents and improve worker safety, city officials said. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says working as a trash collector is among the nation’s most dangerous jobs.","extraction":{"state":"ok","confidence":0.9,"error":null,"explanation":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2028 characters.","diagnostics_url":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-tests-artificial-intelligence-on-garbage-trucks-to-boost-safety","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2028 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":2028,"summary_length":319,"usable_text_length":2028,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":2028,"summary_length":319}}},"display_formats":["compact","card","full","digest_section","json"]},"daily_stack_record":{"title":"Mesa tests artificial intelligence on garbage trucks to boost safety - ABC15 Arizona","url":"https://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-tests-artificial-intelligence-on-garbage-trucks-to-boost-safety","summary":"MESA, AZ — The city of Mesa has begun equipping a small number of municipal garbage trucks with artificial intelligence to help reduce accidents and improve worker safety, city officials said. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says working as a trash collector is among the nation’s most dangerous jobs.","source":"ABC15 Arizona","date":"2026-07-23T17:39:36+00:00","content":"MESA, AZ — The city of Mesa has begun equipping a small number of municipal garbage trucks with artificial intelligence to help reduce accidents and improve worker safety, city officials said.\nThe Occupational Safety and Health Administration says working as a trash collector is among the nation’s most dangerous jobs. Mesa’s fleet of 90 trash trucks serves more than 140,000 residential customers each week, and city officials said there were 95 damage claims related to the department’s garbage trucks between June 2024 and April 2026.\nThree of Mesa’s 90 trucks are currently testing the new AI system, which uses five to seven high-definition cameras mounted on each vehicle to detect people or objects in the truck’s path, officials said. An audible alarm sounded during a recent demonstration.\nPaul Thomas, a Mesa Solid Waste Division safety technician who has driven the trucks for eight years, said the system alerts drivers when a truck’s arm is deployed.\n“If the arm is out while we’re going down the street, an alarm will go off and let you know it’s out so you can prevent getting into an accident,” Thomas said.\nSherri Collins, director of the city’s Solid Waste Division, said she expects the technology to improve further and that it will speed incident reporting to her staff. She noted the cameras currently in use on some trucks are six- to 10-year-old systems.\n“I’m all on board. I think this is such amazing technology. It’s literally taking a 1990s technology and moving it into 2026,” Collins said.\nSafety is the primary reason for adding AI, officials said, including a renewed emphasis on keeping children away from trucks during pickup. Collins cautioned that kids are often fascinated by garbage trucks and urged the public to maintain a safe distance.\nThe pilot program will help the city evaluate whether to expand the technology across the fleet, officials said.\nDisclaimer: Artificial intelligence was used to convert the broadcast version of this script into a text version for publication online.","confidence":0.9,"diagnostics_url":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-tests-artificial-intelligence-on-garbage-trucks-to-boost-safety","quality_bucket":"high","failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"quality_reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2028 characters.","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2028 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":2028,"summary_length":319,"usable_text_length":2028,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":2028,"summary_length":319}},"tags":[]},"fallback_formats":["markdown","json","html"],"actions":{"read":"/item/44691","export_markdown":"/api/items/44691/export?format=markdown","export_json":"/api/items/44691/export?format=json","diagnose":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-tests-artificial-intelligence-on-garbage-trucks-to-boost-safety"},"formats":{"full":{"id":44691,"title":"Mesa tests artificial intelligence on garbage trucks to boost safety - ABC15 Arizona","url":"https://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-tests-artificial-intelligence-on-garbage-trucks-to-boost-safety","source":"ABC15 Arizona","author":null,"published_at":"2026-07-23T17:39:36+00:00","locale":"en","topic":"ai","tags":[],"excerpt":"MESA, AZ — The city of Mesa has begun equipping a small number of municipal garbage trucks with artificial intelligence to help reduce accidents and improve worker safety, city officials said. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says working as a trash collector is among the nation’s most dangerous jobs.","full_text":"MESA, AZ — The city of Mesa has begun equipping a small number of municipal garbage trucks with artificial intelligence to help reduce accidents and improve worker safety, city officials said.\nThe Occupational Safety and Health Administration says working as a trash collector is among the nation’s most dangerous jobs. Mesa’s fleet of 90 trash trucks serves more than 140,000 residential customers each week, and city officials said there were 95 damage claims related to the department’s garbage trucks between June 2024 and April 2026.\nThree of Mesa’s 90 trucks are currently testing the new AI system, which uses five to seven high-definition cameras mounted on each vehicle to detect people or objects in the truck’s path, officials said. An audible alarm sounded during a recent demonstration.\nPaul Thomas, a Mesa Solid Waste Division safety technician who has driven the trucks for eight years, said the system alerts drivers when a truck’s arm is deployed.\n“If the arm is out while we’re going down the street, an alarm will go off and let you know it’s out so you can prevent getting into an accident,” Thomas said.\nSherri Collins, director of the city’s Solid Waste Division, said she expects the technology to improve further and that it will speed incident reporting to her staff. She noted the cameras currently in use on some trucks are six- to 10-year-old systems.\n“I’m all on board. I think this is such amazing technology. It’s literally taking a 1990s technology and moving it into 2026,” Collins said.\nSafety is the primary reason for adding AI, officials said, including a renewed emphasis on keeping children away from trucks during pickup. Collins cautioned that kids are often fascinated by garbage trucks and urged the public to maintain a safe distance.\nThe pilot program will help the city evaluate whether to expand the technology across the fleet, officials said.\nDisclaimer: Artificial intelligence was used to convert the broadcast version of this script into a text version for publication online.","reading_time_min":2,"extraction":{"state":"ok","confidence":0.9,"error":null,"explanation":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2028 characters.","diagnostics_url":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-tests-artificial-intelligence-on-garbage-trucks-to-boost-safety","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2028 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":2028,"summary_length":319,"usable_text_length":2028,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":2028,"summary_length":319}}},"quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2028 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":2028,"summary_length":319,"usable_text_length":2028,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":2028,"summary_length":319}},"actions":{"read":"/item/44691","export_markdown":"/api/items/44691/export?format=markdown","export_json":"/api/items/44691/export?format=json","diagnose":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-tests-artificial-intelligence-on-garbage-trucks-to-boost-safety"}},"digest":{"id":44691,"title":"Mesa tests artificial intelligence on garbage trucks to boost safety - ABC15 Arizona","url":"https://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-tests-artificial-intelligence-on-garbage-trucks-to-boost-safety","source":"ABC15 Arizona","topic":"ai","published_at":"2026-07-23T17:39:36+00:00","excerpt":"MESA, AZ — The city of Mesa has begun equipping a small number of municipal garbage trucks with artificial intelligence to help reduce accidents and improve worker safety, city officials said. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says working as a trash collector is…","quality_bucket":"high","quality_reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2028 characters.","reading_time_min":2,"cluster_id":null},"card":{"display_title":"Mesa tests artificial intelligence on garbage trucks to boost safety - ABC15 Arizona","subtitle":"ABC15 Arizona · 2026-07-23","summary":"MESA, AZ — The city of Mesa has begun equipping a small number of municipal garbage trucks with artificial intelligence to help reduce accidents and improve worker safety, city officials said. The Occupational Safety…","badges":["quality:high"],"links":{"read":"/item/44691","original":"https://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-tests-artificial-intelligence-on-garbage-trucks-to-boost-safety","diagnose":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-tests-artificial-intelligence-on-garbage-trucks-to-boost-safety"},"quality_warning":null},"export":{"title":"Mesa tests artificial intelligence on garbage trucks to boost safety - ABC15 Arizona","url":"https://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-tests-artificial-intelligence-on-garbage-trucks-to-boost-safety","summary":"MESA, AZ — The city of Mesa has begun equipping a small number of municipal garbage trucks with artificial intelligence to help reduce accidents and improve worker safety, city officials said. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration says working as a trash collector is among the nation’s most dangerous jobs.","source":"ABC15 Arizona","date":"2026-07-23T17:39:36+00:00","content":"MESA, AZ — The city of Mesa has begun equipping a small number of municipal garbage trucks with artificial intelligence to help reduce accidents and improve worker safety, city officials said.\nThe Occupational Safety and Health Administration says working as a trash collector is among the nation’s most dangerous jobs. Mesa’s fleet of 90 trash trucks serves more than 140,000 residential customers each week, and city officials said there were 95 damage claims related to the department’s garbage trucks between June 2024 and April 2026.\nThree of Mesa’s 90 trucks are currently testing the new AI system, which uses five to seven high-definition cameras mounted on each vehicle to detect people or objects in the truck’s path, officials said. An audible alarm sounded during a recent demonstration.\nPaul Thomas, a Mesa Solid Waste Division safety technician who has driven the trucks for eight years, said the system alerts drivers when a truck’s arm is deployed.\n“If the arm is out while we’re going down the street, an alarm will go off and let you know it’s out so you can prevent getting into an accident,” Thomas said.\nSherri Collins, director of the city’s Solid Waste Division, said she expects the technology to improve further and that it will speed incident reporting to her staff. She noted the cameras currently in use on some trucks are six- to 10-year-old systems.\n“I’m all on board. I think this is such amazing technology. It’s literally taking a 1990s technology and moving it into 2026,” Collins said.\nSafety is the primary reason for adding AI, officials said, including a renewed emphasis on keeping children away from trucks during pickup. Collins cautioned that kids are often fascinated by garbage trucks and urged the public to maintain a safe distance.\nThe pilot program will help the city evaluate whether to expand the technology across the fleet, officials said.\nDisclaimer: Artificial intelligence was used to convert the broadcast version of this script into a text version for publication online.","confidence":0.9,"diagnostics_url":"/api/diagnose?url=https%3A//www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/mesa/mesa-tests-artificial-intelligence-on-garbage-trucks-to-boost-safety","quality_bucket":"high","failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"quality_reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2028 characters.","quality_profile":{"profile_version":"extraction_quality.v2","bucket":"high","confidence":0.9,"failure_kind":"none","retryable":false,"retry_after_attempts":0,"reason":"High confidence: full text extraction produced 2028 characters.","operator_guidance":{"severity":"ok","recommended_action":"trust_full_text","next_step":"Use the extracted full text as the primary article source.","operator_label":"Ready","can_retry":false,"can_use_summary":false,"diagnostics_required":false},"content_depth":{"contract_version":"content_depth.v1","category":"full_text","label":"Full text","has_full_text":true,"has_summary":true,"content_length":2028,"summary_length":319,"usable_text_length":2028,"source_field":"content"},"legacy_collapsed":false,"signals":{"extract_state":"ok","extract_error":null,"extract_retries":0,"content_length":2028,"summary_length":319}},"tags":[],"format_contract_version":"news_item_formats.v1"}}}