Minnesota 511 App now has a "Live Snowplow Snapshot" feature on it

So it looks like the Minnesota DOT has implemented a really cool new feature to their 511 app. I believe this is a brand new feature that only started a few months ago, as I don't remember this feature being avaliable during the January - April months of 2022.

Now most other states on their 511 apps (if not all of them) have traffic cameras for the main interstates and on select portions of select highways. That's nothing new.

What IS new is that Minnesota has now put live snowplow camera snapshots on their 511 app! This is a really cool concept that I would have never thought of doing. So while it's not a live feed of the plow's foward facing dascham and instead only a picture, It gives the timestamp on when that picture from the plow's forward facing dascham was taken, so that you can see just how recent it was, up to the second.

What's also cool about it is that since the plow obviously has headlights and is running the defroster inside of their plow to keep the windshield as free from ice and snow as possible, then a lot of these pictures are taken with much better lighting quality than what a traditional mounted camera (from a telephone pole, light intersection, etc etc) would have. Central Minnesota has gotten some snow today and I've been checking the MN 511 App and the picture quality of the roads from these plows are really good!

All in all, not only is this a really cool and innovative concept, but it's a very efficient and effective concept as well.

Hat's off to Minnesota. I hope other states trend in this direction as well moving forward.