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The $429M picture.

That's what Chicago bills drivers a year (2022–24 average) — 5.25 million tickets, citywide. About a third of it is late penalty piled on top of the original fine. Most of it never gets challenged. Here's the picture, and where we fit inside it.

Where the $429M comes from

$429Macross 5.25 million tickets
$289.0M face fines$140.0M late penalties

The face fines are what you'd see if you paid in 25 days. The late penalty kicks in after that — for most ticket types the fine roughly doubles. About a third of every dollar billed is the late-fee surcharge, not the original ticket.

What usually happens to these tickets

Out of every 100 tickets the City writes…

93 just get paid or default into late-fee territory. Nobody contests them. Not because the tickets are good — because the process is hostile enough that most people don't bother.

Only 7 of those 100 get a mail-in fight.

That gap — between “93 give up” and “those who fight win 59%of the time” — is the whole reason we exist.

Where the money goes — and what we do about it

  • Speed and red-light cameras
    Car monitoring with a voice heads-up before you reach a camera zone.
    $203.8M
    We warn you in time
  • City sticker and license plate compliance
    We remind you before your city sticker or plate lapses so you renew in time — and if a ticket slips through, we contest it by mail (these are among the most-dismissed categories citywide).
    $82.1M
    We warn you in time
  • Meters, street cleaning, permit zones, no-parking signs
    Car monitoring watches where you park and warns you if you're at risk of a ticket.
    $113.7M
    We warn you in time

These three groups are the biggest categories — about $400M of the $429M; the remaining ~$30M is a long tail of smaller violations. The one big category we can't actively prevent — generic “no parking anytime” signs — still gets an automatic mail-in contest and the late-fee protection below.

The biggest single lever

Stop the silent doubling.

$140.0Mof the $429M Chicago billed is late penalty — added automatically when a ticket isn't contested within 25 days.

The moment we mail a contest, the City pauses the late-fee clock for as long as your hearing is pending.

  • If we win,the fine and the late fee are both wiped — you owe nothing.
  • If we lose, the clock restarts from the ruling date, giving you a fresh window to pay before any penalty accrues.

Either way, you skip the automatic doubling that hits 93 of every 100 Chicago tickets just because nobody fought back in time.

Bottom line

About 92% of every dollar Chicago billed drivers a year is inside what Autopilot covers.

Either we warn you before the ticket happens, pause the late-fee clock, or mail the contest for you. The one thing we can't do is win a ticket the City refuses to dismiss.