The $562M picture.
That's what Chicago billed drivers in 2025 — 5.25 million tickets, citywide. Almost half 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 $562M comes from
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. Nearly half 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…
94 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 6 of those 100 get a mail-in fight.
That gap — between “94 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 camerasVoice alerts in the car before you reach a camera zone.$249.3MWe warn you in time
- City sticker and license plate complianceWe attempt to renew your City sticker for you and remind you before your plate lapses (emissions test, if required, is yours to complete).$90.4MWe do it for you
- Meters, street cleaning, permit zones, no-parking signsApp alerts you before you park somewhere that gets ticketed.$145.2MWe warn you in time
These three groups cover the top 10 ticket categories Chicago issued in 2025. One category we can't actively prevent — generic “no parking anytime” signs ($23.3M) — still gets an automatic mail-in contest and the late-fee protection below.
Stop the silent doubling.
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 94 of every 100 Chicago tickets just because nobody fought back in time.
Bottom line
About 89% of every dollar Chicago billed drivers in 2025 is inside what Autopilot covers.
Either we prevent the ticket, renew the compliance for you, or pause the late-fee clock and mail the contest. The one thing we can't do is pay a ticket the City refuses to dismiss.