SMC Tollways now with AI-enabled license plate-recognition cameras in preparation for barrier-less expressways

Picture this: You’re eating up the miles on your car on the expressway, the road is clear, your speed is consistent, and you reach the last tollgate earlier than your expected time of arrival. Great, right? Except the queue is long, and it’s taking ages for the cars to pass through the gate. 

That’s the typical expressway driving experience in the Philippines—smooth and enjoyable until you hit the tollgate. While some delays are due to drivers neglecting to top up their RFID wallets, the bigger culprit is often the slow and unreliable RFID scanners. These systems can take their time processing each vehicle and occasionally malfunction, shutting the gate on cars before they’ve fully passed through. 

San Miguel Corporation (SMC), through its tollway arm SMC Tollways Corp. is looking to improve the current tollway system through the use of better cameras, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). SMC Chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang announced that, in line with government directives, the company’s infrastructure arm has installed 522  AI-enabled automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) cameras across all toll plazas and gantries within its 220-km expressway network.

These advanced cameras are designed to enhance vehicle throughput by complementing the existing Autosweep RFID electronic toll collection system. You may have heard ALPR being used overseas for law enforcement and it functions for tollways the same way. To put it simply, ALPR captures images or videos of passing vehicles which it then cross-checks with a database of customer RFID data to find a match. AI then ensures that the license plate images are clear by preprocessing the photos before feeding them into the system. The ALPR camera does this even while the vehicle is a substantial distance away from the tollgate.  Modern ALPR systems can accurately decipher license plates even in foggy weather or heavy rain. Combined with existing RFID scanners, this new system will help increase RFID recognition at the tollways, while decreasing errors and ensuring that the proper amount is credited from the driver’s e-wallet.

Ang noted that initial testing of the system began as early as last year, with the "barriers up" implementation at toll plazas along the entire stretch of the South Luzon Expressway and the at-grade section of the Skyway System. He added that this approach has also helped the toll operator address concerns from local governments regarding traffic congestion on roads leading to and from the expressways, which has been exacerbated by increased vehicular volume and economic activity.

Will the addition of ALPR cameras in SMC’s tollway network reduce queuing times? Hopefully yes so we can stop making jokes about “Skywait” as soon as possible. If you’re looking for a new ride to coast the Philippines’ expressway network, you can search multiple types of vehicles across multiple brands in minutes using the AutoDeal Car Guide. Now available in iOS and Android, you can browse for your dream car anytime and anywhere.