UK government funds new Bluetooth ticketing solution

This new Bluetooth ticketing solution aims to give passengers genuine ‘ticketless travel’ ­- which will unlock the benefits of account-based ticketing – and position itself as a key component of Mobility as a Service operations.

UrbanThings has said it plans to use the grant to fund a research and development project that will look into how Bluetooth and similar technologies can enable passengers to travel without needing to ‘tap on’ the vehicle. This would reduce boarding time and operating costs compared to existing m-Ticketing systems.

“This will be the ultimate ticketless travel experience for passengers – simply walk on and off any vehicle,” said Carl Partridge, CEO of UrbanThings. “Your phone tracks your trips, then you’re charged the best price at the end of the week. Existing solutions rely on expensive equipment and provide a poor passenger experience. With our solution, operators get benefit from a simple and low-cost rollout and customers get to use tech they’re familiar with.”

The London-based company has already developed a prototype of the project which allows vehicles to wirelessly detect a customer boarding. This process takes under 50 milliseconds which us significantly faster than any other payment process worldwide.

The aim is to pilot the proposed solution at the end of 2017 by demand-responsive transport service Esoterix.