Automatic passenger counting for public transport: precise, standards-based, integrated.

No. The sensors count boarding and alighting passengers anonymously; they don’t collect personal data or identify individuals. Only count and occupancy values per trip and stop are recorded, used for revenue allocation, transit planning, and load display. The Unwired Edge Cloud transmits these values to the backend over the vehicle-to-ground connection and never processes passenger identities itself. Operations run under Unwired Networks’ ISO 27001-certified security processes.

Yes. The central vehicle router runs multiple applications at once in separate containers. Alongside INTERAUTOMATION’s counting application, the same router can provide passenger Wi-Fi with a customizable captive portal, handle network functions, and deliver telemetry data. The applications run in mutually isolated containers with assigned resources, so they share the hardware without interfering with each other. One router thus replaces several standalone devices, cutting hardware, cabling, and maintenance in the vehicle.

With the Deutschlandticket, individual ticket sales matter less as a revenue-allocation key. Revenue is increasingly distributed based on demand, and that requires actual passenger numbers. More and more tenders now require vehicle occupancy data. Automatic passenger counting under VDV 457 v2.1 delivers this data continuously and accurately, instead of extrapolating it from occasional sampling. Operators who retrofit early meet current requirements and are prepared for demand-based revenue allocation.

The rollout runs centrally through Unwired Edge Cloud device management. The counting application is deployed as a container to the vehicle routers, and new devices pick up their configuration automatically via zero-touch provisioning after delivery — no technician needs to visit the vehicle. You distribute configurations and updates fleet-wide, even to vehicles that are temporarily offline; they catch up the next time they’re in service. This lets you bring counting into operation across many vehicles at once.

Occupancy data is transmitted over the Unwired Edge Cloud’s vehicle-to-ground connection. WAN bonding combines multiple mobile carriers into a single uplink for this. If one carrier drops out, traffic automatically shifts to the remaining connections, so data reaches the backend reliably even in transit with poor coverage. If the connection does briefly drop, the vehicle buffers the counts locally and sends them on once signal returns. No counts are lost.

INTERAUTOMATION’s counting systems achieve accuracy of up to 99% under VDV 457 v2.1 — the level typically required for count data to be used in revenue-allocation procedures instead of extrapolating from samples. The Unwired Edge Cloud transmits the captured values reliably to your backend. Accuracy is down to INTERAUTOMATION’s sensor technology; Unwired makes sure the data arrives complete and on time wherever it’s evaluated.

Automatic passenger counting (APC) automatically records boarding and alighting passengers, determining vehicle occupancy. In this solution, responsibilities are clearly split: INTERAUTOMATION supplies the counting sensors and the onboard APC application that handles the actual counting. The Unwired Edge Cloud provides the platform — it runs the counting application via Unwired Edge Compute as a container on the central vehicle router, transmits the data to the control center, and manages the devices through device management. Unwired doesn’t supply its own counting sensors; it supplies hosting, connectivity, and operations for INTERAUTOMATION’s solution.