Tomasi (ASPI CEO): “We are implementing another key element in Autostrade per l’Italia’s transformation plan, which is based on technological and digital innovation, the development of electric mobility and sustainable vision, and the relaunch of investments and maintenance activities”.
- Autostrade per l’Italia’s new company dedicated to the development of digital solutions for the infrastructure and transport sector.
- Intelligent service areas, technologies for smart roads and smart cities, artificial intelligence platforms for infrastructure monitoring: the new services will affect millions of travellers on motorway and underground networks.
- Hiring plan with 50% more resources in three years and a 100 million investment by ASPI for the Group’s technology start-up.
Rome, 18 March 2021 – A technology hub dedicated to infrastructures through the development of digital solutions for analysing and managing traffic flows; hardware and software architectures for monitoring works and systems designed to manage heavy vehicles and the transport of dangerous goods; new smart products for mobility – with user-friendly interfaces to speed up the transition through the motorway station – but also for the city and vehicles (smart city and smart roads), equipping roads and motorways with advanced technologies enabling a better organisation of urban movements and motorway-vehicle interaction under the banner of comfort and safety. These are the components of the development plan of the new technological operator MOVYON, an evolution of Autostrade Tech that looks to the wider world of mobility with sustainable, highly innovative solutions for millions of motorists, inside and outside Italy, going beyond the motorway sector.
The company is one of the assets of Autostrade per l’Italia Group’s new transformation plan; following the launch of the Argo platform for the digital monitoring of motorway infrastructure, it has launched its own industrial project focusing on digital engineering for mobility. Based on a wide range of solutions and know-how in the tech sector, MOVYON will invest Euro 100 million in technological innovation and double the number of its employees over the next three years: 80% of new recruits will be engineers, physicists and mathematicians with an average age of 40.
These are the main MOVYON services and projects being released:
- Smart Road – MOVYON is developing Italy’s first motorway Smart Roads by installing digital infrastructures capable of notifying vehicles of the presence of obstacles, construction sites and bottlenecks in an accurate, reliable manner, thereby enabling motorists to make decisions on the itinerary and safety of their journey. The company has launched working tables with leading automotive manufacturers to test the first solutions. Between April and June 2021, the first A1 smart road will be completed on the 26-kilometre motorway stretch between the Firenze Sud and Firenze Nord exits.
- Smart service areas – MOVYON is completing the construction of the first service area with advanced technologies that will provide users with information and services on crowding levels in rest areas, the availability of parking spaces and charging stations for electric vehicles, and the waiting time for the various services. This will enable motorists to plan their stop more efficiently and in total comfort. The first smart area will be opened in Peretola, in the province of Florence, by April 2021, and will gradually be followed by the main service areas on the entire motorway network.
- Dynamic pricing technologies – The platform enabling the introduction of dynamic pricing on motorway sections will be released by June 2021. The new system analyses traffic flows and journey times in real time, measuring delays and correlating them with the reasons for delays. This will give motorway operators the opportunity to issue toll refunds based on travel time, using a wide range of digital payment platforms. The introduction of this new technology on the Autostrade per l’Italia network is also planned for next June. MOVYON is also upgrading all toll booth facilities to make payment systems and interaction with Autostrade per l’Italia’s customer care even swifter. Installations of the new technology are already underway, starting with the Firenze Ovest toll gate, which will also include colour touch screens and the introduction of a ‘virtual’ agent equipped with artificial intelligence to provide users with maximum support.
- Argo platform – The new digital infrastructure monitoring platform developed with IBM and Fincantieri Nextech is now used on all 4,000 bridges, viaducts and flyovers on Autostrade per l’Italia’s network. In addition, between April and September 2021, 3D scanning of over 130 bridges and viaductswill be completed in Liguria, using drones equipped with laser technology and high-definition cameras to create a ‘digital twin’ of the infrastructure. This precise, effective system will be at the service of inspectors carrying out surveillance activities, who will be supported by artificial intelligence software for the automatic detection of defects.
- Interactive heavy vehicle monitoring – A system for detecting and tracking dangerous goods in real time is already active on two sections of the A4 and the A27 motorways, enabling constant mapping of the movement of such goods on the motorway network. This technology enables operators to organise their road network, safety facilities and equipment according to this particular type of traffic flow. At the same time, MOVYON is developing the first system in Italy for the dynamic monitoring of heavy vehicles, which will be able to provide hauliers with indications of alternative routes based on the characteristics of each vehicle, if necessary. The first prototype of the system will be activated on the A3 Napoli – Salerno in the next few days and then extended to the entire national network. A further application of this platform will be the possibility of efficiently planning the maintenance of the motorway surface, which can be carried out on the basis of the detection of flows and the relative weights on a specific section. Other safety management solutions being implemented include radars and thermal cameras designed to detect accidents and stationary vehicles in an accurate and timely manner.
- Smart Cities – MOVYON’s business plan envisages going beyond the motorway network to provide services dedicated to urban mobility by monitoring metropolitan infrastructures, regulating access to urban centres by bulky vehicles such as tourist buses, and streamlining flows by optimising service management processes in Italy’s major cities. The new technologies will enable local administrations to anticipate the formation of queues at traffic lights and congested areas, or double-parked cars. In addition, a detection system will enable waste management companies to monitor the filling of bins, thereby optimising collection and disposal operations. All this will be done from a single centralised control room. This technology will enable users to receive information on the presence of free parking spaces, the best route to take, the level of pollution in the air, etc.
“Movyon is another key element in the implementation of Autostrade per l’Italia’s new business plan”, says Aspi CEO Roberto Tomasi. “Relaunching investments and maintenance, focusing on technological and digital innovation, developing e-mobility and sustainable vision, and enhancing talents and skills are the fundamental guidelines along which we have been transforming Italy’s main motorway concessionaire into an integrated mobility operator of European and international standing. Movyon’s technologies and solutions will make it possible to concretely implement innovative mobility services that will improve the travel experience of several million people, both on the motorway and in the city. Based on this logic and with this spirit of service, we will work together with our partners and alongside institutions to make an important contribution to the new forms of mobility towards which the country is decisively shifting its focus”.
“Our technology is developed in Europe’s largest open-air laboratory, namely the 3,000-km network of Autostrade per l’Italia”. This is how MOVYON CEO Lorenzo Rossi presented the new company born from the experience of Autostrade Tech, namely Aspi’s research and innovation spin-off launched in 2009, which already boasts over 150 professionals working in the field of engineering and technology.
“As Movyon, we will continue to invent, implement and integrate invisible technology for sustainable mobility,” explains Movyon CEO Lorenzo Rossi. “We are transcending motorway boundaries, entering cities, continuing our expansion abroad and opening a new office in Milan. We have already signed important partnerships with universities, incubators, start-ups and technology companies in the name of Open Innovation and Co-creation. We will continue to innovate, imagining how new technologies will make all forms of mobility simpler”.