Indra Awarded €75 Million Contract In US To Implement AI Toll System

Indra said Wednesday it has been awarded a contract for €75 million with the concession company I-66 Express Mobility Partners, 50% owned by Cintra, to implement the toll technology that will enable the I-66 to operate with an innovative, dynamic fare system. Once completed, this 22-mile I-66 Outside the Beltway highway segment, from I-495 to US Highway 29 near Gainesville, in Virginia, will have three free lanes and two lanes with a dynamic toll (Managed Lanes).

Indra will implement a free-flow automatic toll system from its Mova Collect line of solutions, which will detect traffic intensity in real-time, and provide inputs like traffic density, vehicle type, vehicle’s occupants and other variables that support the calculation of dynamic toll fares. Indra’s solution, based on free-flow toll points, allows cars to pass a toll point without having to reduce the vehicle’s speed. This project is Indra’s first project to have an automatic occupancy detection system integrated with each toll point.

Thanks to this solution, the toll rates in express lanes will change based on traffic demand along the corridor. The system can change the toll rates as often as every three minutes. If the traffic increases on the express lanes, the toll can be changed, so that the number of users willing to pay is reduced, traffic intensity decreases again and travel times are improved. Thus, it is possible to keep vehicle speeds higher than the free lanes to provide better service to the express lanes’ users and dynamic charging becomes an advanced traffic management tool.

Indra’s solution will inform drivers the fare for their choice of free or express lanes. Indra’s highly redundant design maximizes the number of billable transactions should a device(s) fail and allows maintenance work at night when the traffic flow is lower.

Indra’s solution will provide sensor technology that will contribute to greater road safety and pollution reduction, making mobility more sustainable in one of the most congested corridors in the country.

Unique solution in the world

The Indra toll solution is one of the most advanced that currently exists, incorporating AI deep learning capabilities, integration with connected vehicles and the company’s system for automatic occupancy detection.

Indra’s R&D&i effort provided a “Deep Learning” Vehicle Occupancy Detection (VOD) System that showed the highest accuracy rate in a pilot test performed in San Francisco, compared to the other two companies worldwide that met the minimum criteria required to participate.

Thanks to computer vision and artificial intelligence, the system can automatically detect, in real-time, non-intrusively and with high reliability, the type of vehicle that travels on the road, as well as the front and rear occupants. helping operators manage the toll collection process.

Indra’s dynamic toll solution will also be able to improve its performance and “learn” through deep learning as more real-time data is collected during operations. Indra’s solution is scalable and has great flexibility to adapt to changes in business and vehicle classification rules required by the client.

The Indra’s project for I-66 Express Mobility Partners also includes a complete roadside system with communications, intelligent transportation system (ITS), ITS equipment for and interface to the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) traffic management center and the maintenance of the I-66 Outside the Beltway roadside system for up to a year.

Indra’s traffic management system, from the Mova Traffic solutions line, will offer operators a unique view of what is happening on the highway. It will integrate vehicle detection sensors, a video surveillance system (CCTV) and variable message signs, showing toll fare information and incidents related information.

Innovation leads to smart mobility

This contract in the United States follows the Queensland, Australia contact that Indra won recently to implement its Mova technology, which is already implemented for the tunnels managed by the English DGT in the United Kingdom and the London tunnels. These projects confirm Indra as one of the world leaders in smart mobility.

What was crucial to winning these important contracts was Indra’s commitment to facilitate more sustainable and environmentally friendly, safer, more efficient and sustainable mobility, through innovation and the use of artificial intelligence, big data, the cloud and systems to integrate connected vehicles.

The innovation makes Indra a pioneer in free-flow toll systems and multi-concession toll systems. In the latter case, Indra implemented Back Office System technology for the integrated management and operation of the LBJ Express and North Tarrant Express highways in Texas. Now, Indra is taking a new step in the advanced model of dynamic tolls (Managed Lanes) to make new and more sustainable mobility policies possible. Dynamic tolling is growing in the United States and has great potential to be applied for large European cities.