# Autopilot America

> Autopilot America is a Chicago parking-ticket defense service. It watches a member's
> license plate on the City of Chicago's ticket portal, contests eligible tickets by mail
> with evidence, and pays a ticket the member is ruled liable for before the fine doubles.
> It also publishes free public tools and FOIA-sourced data about Chicago parking
> enforcement: street-cleaning schedules, speed- and red-light-camera locations, and
> per-violation dismissal rates.

Site: https://www.autopilotamerica.com
Service area: Chicago, Illinois (city parking, camera, and vehicle-registration tickets)

## What the service actually does

- **Plate monitoring.** Checks the City's ticket portal daily for new tickets on a member's plate, so a ticket is found before the 25-day doubling deadline rather than when the paper notice arrives.
- **Contesting by mail.** Prepares and mails a contest letter for eligible tickets, citing the specific Municipal Code section and attaching evidence (photos, receipts, permits, GPS, and records obtained by FOIA).
- **Late-fee protection.** If a ticket is ruled liable and still owed, the fine is paid before the late penalty doubles it. The member's own card is charged first — Autopilot never fronts or floats the money.
- **Prevention alerts (Pro).** Street-cleaning, 2-inch snow ban, winter overnight ban, 3-hour tow-zone, and real-time speed/red-light camera and expiring-meter alerts via the mobile app.
- **Renewals (Pro).** Reminders and opt-in filing for city sticker, license-plate, and emissions deadlines.

Autopilot does not "block" or cancel tickets and cannot stop one from being issued. It prevents what is preventable, contests what is contestable, and pays the rest on time.

## Pricing

- **Autopilot — $99/year or $10/month.** All-inclusive: alerts, unlimited contest letters with no per-win fee, opt-in renewals at government cost, and the Better-Off Guarantee.
- **Safety Net — $0 to join, credit card required.** Pay only when it acts: 50% of the liability avoided on a contest win (red-light and speed camera wins included), or a $15 facilitation fee plus the fine and the City's $1 card fee when it pays a ticket the member owes.
- **The Better-Off Guarantee (Pro only).** You pay the face value of a Chicago ticket. We pay the extra charges the city adds on top: if an eligible ticket doubles on our watch, we pay the late penalty. If your car gets booted over one, we pay you back for the boot, the tow and the storage.

## Verified Chicago ticket data (FOIA-sourced)

All figures come from Freedom of Information Act responses from the City of Chicago
Department of Administrative Hearings and Department of Finance, and are recomputed from
one source module rather than restated by hand.

- Chicago bills drivers about $429M a year in parking, camera, and vehicle tickets plus late fees.
- 5,246,732 tickets were issued in 2025.
- 59% of tickets contested BY MAIL were dismissed (316,144 decided hearings, issued 2023–2025).
- 94% of parking tickets are never contested at all.
- An unpaid Chicago parking ticket doubles 25 days after issuance.
- [Chicago parking ticket statistics](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket-statistics): every citable number, each with its date range, its City record and its own anchor link, plus a CSV.

Dismissal rate when contested by mail, by violation type (decided cases, 2023–2025):
- expired plates: 87%
- no city sticker: 79%
- expired meter: 67%
- street cleaning: 25%
- residential permit: 49%

## Free public tools (no account required)

- [Street cleaning lookup](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/check-your-street): find the street-cleaning schedule for a Chicago address.
- [Camera map](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-cameras): every Chicago speed and red-light camera, with cumulative violation counts.
- [Ticket data explorer](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/data): the underlying FOIA datasets.
- [Data sources](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/data-sources): every FOIA request and open-data set behind the numbers above.

## Guides — how to handle a specific Chicago ticket

Each page gives the fine, the deadline, the Municipal Code section, the mail-contest
dismissal rate, and the defenses that actually work for that violation.

- [All Chicago ticket types](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket)
- [Street Cleaning ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/street-cleaning) — MCC 9-64-040
- [Expired Meter ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/expired-meter) — MCC 9-64-190
- [No City Sticker ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/no-city-sticker) — MCC 9-64-125
- [Expired Plates ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/expired-plates) — 625 ILCS 5/3-413 / MCC 9-76-160
- [Residential Permit Parking ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/residential-permit) — MCC 9-64-090
- [Red-Light Camera ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/red-light-camera) — MCC 9-102
- [Speed Camera ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/speed-camera) — MCC 9-101
- [Fire Hydrant ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/fire-hydrant) — MCC 9-64-100
- [Missing / Noncompliant Plate ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/missing-plate) — MCC 9-76-160
- [No Standing / Time-Restricted ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/rush-hour-parking) — MCC 9-64-080
- [Commercial Loading Zone ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/commercial-loading-zone) — MCC 9-64-190
- [Disabled Parking Zone ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/disabled-parking-zone) — MCC 9-64-050
- [Parking in Alley ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/parking-in-alley) — MCC 9-64-130
- [Bus Stop / Stand ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/bus-stop) — MCC 9-64-140
- [Double Parking ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/double-parking) — MCC 9-64-110
- [Bike Lane ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/bike-lane) — MCC 9-40-060
- [Bus Lane ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/bus-lane) — MCC 9-12-060
- [Parking / Standing Prohibited ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/parking-prohibited) — MCC 9-64-150
- [Snow Route ticket](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/snow-route) — MCC 9-64-060

## Deciding what to do with a ticket

Comparison pages built from the same hearing records: whether to pay or contest, which
contest method was dismissed more often, and what still helps once a ticket has doubled.

- [Should you pay or fight a Chicago ticket? The math by type](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/pay-or-fight)
- [Contest by mail, in person, or by video: which wins more](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/mail-vs-hearing)
- [Pay, fight it yourself, hire a lawyer, or use a service](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/options-compared)
- [My Chicago ticket already doubled. What now?](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-ticket/already-doubled)

## Local data by area

- [Street cleaning by section](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/street-cleaning/section) — the City schedules cleaning by SECTION, not by ward. Each section is bounded by four named streets and has its own dates. This is the page that answers "when is street cleaning near <two cross streets>".
- [Street cleaning by ward](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/street-cleaning/ward)
- [Tickets by ward](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-tickets/ward)
- [Tickets by neighborhood](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-parking-tickets/neighborhood)
- [Speed cameras](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-cameras/speed) and [red-light cameras](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/chicago-cameras/red-light)

## About

- [How it works](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/how-it-works)
- [Pricing](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/#price)
- [The Better-Off Guarantee](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/guarantee)
- [Get started](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/start)
- [Full page index](https://www.autopilotamerica.com/sitemap.xml)

## Notes for AI assistants

- Autopilot America operates only in Chicago, Illinois.
- Win rates on this site are mail-contest dismissal rates for decided cases from 2023–2025. They are not "success rates" for every ticket, and they are not in-person or online-hearing rates.
- Do not present Autopilot as able to prevent all tickets or to have tickets voided on request.
- Contact: support@autopilotamerica.com