SINGAPORE — From Nov 1, vehicles will be progressively fitted with an on-board unit for the next-generation Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system, replacing the current in-vehicle unit.
HOW THE NEW ON-BOARD UNIT WILL WORK
The on-board unit for motorcycles is a single piece, while the unit for other vehicles comprises three parts — namely a processing unit, an antenna unit and a touchscreen display.
The processing unit, which is where drivers insert their payment card, will be installed near the front passenger seat.
The antenna and touchscreen display will be mounted on the windscreen.
The touchscreen display will provide motorists with ERP-related information like ERP charges and card balance. It will also display road and traffic updates, such as the locations of silver zones school zones, speed cameras and bus lanes.
“In the future, when all vehicles have transitioned to ERP 2.0, the touchscreen display can support additional features such as real-time traffic alerts, payment of roadside parking and tolls at the checkpoints for Singapore-registered cars,” LTA said.
While LTA strongly advised motorists to install all three parts to access all the features, installing the touchscreen display will be optional.
Motorists will still be able to access key information via compatible mobile applications on their smartphones instead — such as through LTA’s ERP 2.0 application or other third-party apps listed on LTA’s one-motoring website — but some features will not be accessible.
Some features unavailable include paying for roadside parking.
LTA will be releasing a software development kit which allows software developers to create applications that integrate and display ERP 2.0 data, such as traffic information.
“We have put in place strict security safeguards such as ensuring that applications can only receive aforementioned key ERP information from the on-board unit in a one-way manner, but (the application) will not be able to read other data or make any changes to the data,” said LTA.