21 Apr April 21, 2018 Trial phase of smart plates to begin next month, says RTA Dubai: Vehicles equipped with smart number plates will automatically send out alert to police and ambulance centers in case of accidents or any other emergencies. Dubai will be the first city in the world next month to run a pilot of smart plates, testing the Roads and Transport Authority’s (RTA) Tag2Connect (T2C) platform. The system, which was on display at the Dubai International Government Achievements Exhibtion (DIGAE), will see vehicles installed with smart plates (digital screens) equipped with GPS, transmitters and a microprocessor chip, replacing the existing metal plates. Based on Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain technologies, the T2C platform, will enable direct continuous real time communication between vehicles as well as providing long range communications with Traffic Monitoring Centre. The continuous connectivity will help vehicles interact with each other as well as interacting with the authorities, feeding data to the central system. “This feature will help us study road behaviour of a driver, track the vehicle’s movement as well as helping the driver to conduct seamless transaction with different authorities. Also among the benefits is that the system will send out automatic alerts to authorities concerned in case of an emergency,” said Sultan Al Marzouqi, Director of Licensing, RTA. He added that the trial will be conducted until the end of this year to iron out any glitches in the system and to see how the system will actually work. Explaining the system further he said: “the smart plate is like a device that is connected to the system. It will be compatible with the different mobile platforms and drivers will be able to conduct any transaction using the plate number, without having to visit the customer care center.” The smart plate will be linked to a driver’s traffic file and e-purse, allowing the motorists to carry out vehicle registration, testing and pay fines or fees on the go. Source: GN
