VINCI Highways leverages AI to enhance license plate reading on HCTRA highways in Texas
VINCI Highways’ subsidiary ViaPlus has successfully delivered a new image review system for the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA), through a contract secured in April 2024. HCTRA is a public agency managing 205 km (128 miles) of free-flow highways in Houston and facilitates the movement of over 600 million vehicles annually. The partnership with ViaPlus delivers image review services with artificial intelligence to support HCTRA’s video tolling operations.
At the heart of this collaboration is ViaPlus' Sightline solution with integrates AI to analyze and verify license plate images for electronic toll transactions. Sightline™ can reconstruct obscured or incomplete license plate images caused by challenging conditions such as weather and lighting, or dirt or debris. The system uses optical character recognition to identify license plate details such as fonts, character sets, logos, and designs.
Sightline™ implementation for HCTRA also features a team of highly trained human reviewers to validate license plate images that cannot be automatically processed. These experts assess regional license plate designs and traffic patterns, ensuring even the most complex cases are processed accurately. Together, automatic and manual image review modules meet HCTRA’s stringent accuracy standards to ensure reliability for tolling operations across the agency’s network.
ViaPlus invested seven months in customizing its technology and workflows in preparation to launch the HCTRA system. This included adapting AI algorithms to recognize license plates unique to the region and integrating the Sightline™ system with official databases to ensure accurate billing to registered vehicle owners.
ViaPlus has also established a 24/7 operations office in Houston to provide seamless support for the new system. This local presence enables quick response times and ensures uninterrupted service for HCTRA and its customers.
