UrbanThings Wins Innovate UK Bid for £100,000 m-Ticketing Project

UrbanThings has been awarded UK government funding to develop an innovative and low-cost mobile Bluetooth ticketing solution for public transport operators. The product promises genuine ‘ticketless travel’ for passengers, unlocking the benefits of account-based ticketing. It aims to position itself as a key component of Mobility as a Service operations worldwide.

The company intends to leverage the grant in order to fund a research and development project into how Bluetooth and similar technologies can enable passengers to travel without having to ‘tap on’ to vehicles. This drastically reduces boarding time and operator costs compared to existing m-Ticketing systems. The proposed solution will be piloted later this year by fledgling demand-responsive transport service Esoterix.

The company has already developed a prototype product which allows a vehicle to wirelessly detect a customer boarding, a process which takes under 50 milliseconds. This is significantly faster than many payment processes in operation worldwide.

Innovate UK hopes that augmenting transport ticketing using contemporary technologies will encourage greater adoption of flexible fare structures, such as distance- or usage-based charging. Operators will also be able to use detailed operational insights to move towards a demand-responsive MaaS service.

Carl Partridge, CEO of UrbanThings, said “This will be the ultimate ticketless travel experience for passengers — simply walk on and off any vehicle. 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.”