[unrudh]

Hey everyone, I've been driving my parents' 2022 1.5L Taigun GT on and off for the last year. We had a small, but concerning incident during our recent drive from Bangalore to the Bandipur/Mudumalai resort for a short vacation.

With increasing reports of police cracking down on speeding incidences on the new BLR-Mysore expressway (i know, it's technically a highway), I was very careful to stay within the 100kmph limit. In fact, for large stretches, I drove at sub-80kmph so that my mom could crack open the window safely.

While we were cruising in the 80kmph area, a gravel-carrying truck passed us. One tiny piece of gravel fell off the back, bounced once on the road and smacked into our windshield a little to the left of center.

It didn't sound loud, so wasn't particularly alarming. But a little while later, we noticed a small chip in the windshield at that spot.

Much to our alarm and dismay, a thin crack started growing from the chip in both upwards and downwards. We completed the full trip safely, but at the end of 12 hours, the crack had moved all the way to the bottom frame and most of the way to the top.

Knowing how windshields are made and fitted, I was not concerned about it falling out or otherwise shattering, but it was a concerning incident nonetheless.

We got back to bangalore without incident, and reported the incident through our Acko insurance app. The car was picked up the next day, and delivered back to us the day after. So I suppose all's well that ends well.

A related amusing and mysterious incident occured yesterday. It's been about 2 weeks since we had the windshield replaced. I was off to drop people at the bangalore airport. We drove through the toll gate that just precedes it, and the gate read our fastag as usual.

But on the way back to the city about 15 minutes later, the gate refused to read my tag. The lady looked out of the booth and said, "Sir, your car doesn't have a fastag". I looked at the front of the car, and yes, there was no tag. I was flabbergasted! How could the tag have disappeared in just 15 minutes, when I had not even left the car in that time. The lady even found the entry for the car from earlier and let me pass.

After driving on for a bit, I realised that of course the fastag was no longer there! We had just replaced the windshield.

Then it occured to me, how the heck did the toll gate pass my car on the way out?? We even received the sms stating the correct time, amount deducted and toll gate for that event.

Anyone have any ideas? Do some Fastag stations now scan numberplates?

I have now phoned in for a replacement tag, but I am absolutely puzzled

Cheers

[GhostGrid]

Originally Posted by unrudh

Anyone have any ideas? Do some Fastag stations now scan numberplates?
Cheers

It's probable that the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) pilot program has already begun in that area.

PS: I am just guessing it, other BHpians may be able to shed additional insight on this incident.

[NomadSK]

Originally Posted by unrudh

Anyone have any ideas? Do some Fastag stations now scan numberplates?

A pilot project is on-going for automatic reading of the number plates. No idea of how much is the pan INDIA coverage. Pls Find the snapshot below from PIB;

[anandhsub]

There is no need of ANPR as well.

In many toll plazas, the fastag scanner doesnt work properly. There the toll attendent just inputs the Vehicle number and the fastag balance gets deducted.

[Raghu M]

Could be your license plate. Nothing to worry about but you should get the old one cancelled and order a new one. Make sure your balance is transferred too.

[raptor_diwan]

A similar thing has happened to me, and I was also wondering. I thought this must be ANPR as it happened to me on the TN highway. Chances are, it must be ANPR.It might not be a person manually entering your number. If that's the case, it must have taken some time for you at the tollgate. If not, then there is no way it could be due to manual entry. It's more likely that it's ANPR in the testing phase.

[FHW]

Originally Posted by anandhsub

There is no need of ANPR as well.

In many toll plazas, the fastag scanner doesnt work properly. There the toll attendent just inputs the Vehicle number and the fastag balance gets deducted.

Yes, experienced the same a number of times. Toll attendants deduct toll amount using an app. Once both the fastag scanner and app were not working, upon crossing the toll my car was photographed and toll amount was deducted a day later.

[Mustang Sammy]

Originally Posted by GhostGrid

It's probable that the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) pilot program has already begun in that area.

PS: I am just guessing it, other BHpians may be able to shed additional insight on this incident.

I have indirect confirmation of the same.
After selling my car and removing the physical fastag I was still getting messages of toll deduction (pending the tag cancellation), which must be due to either license plate scanning or the toll booth employee manually entering the vehicle number.

[neerajku]

If you notice most fastag cameras are focused on the number plate and not on your windscreen. If it can't identify then the attendant comes with a scanner and scans the tag.

[Aloneatma]

Every fastag is unique and tied to another unique number plate. So after activating the fastag and post a particular number of transactions over the months, both can be used interchangeably and this may be the rationale behind rendering the fastag superfluous going forward. It will all boil down to the number plate, which is the right way to go about.

[n_ramesh99]

When the FastTag was introduced the reading was entirely based on RFID tags sensors and it used to take a few 10s of seconds. Later on when the number of vehicles with FastTag increased, I started noticing toll booth attendeds inputing the number through keyboard looking at a CCTV footage which is focused near the number plate area to make the operation faster. This is what happened in your case also in the first instance.

[autobahnjpr]

There is no ANPR for Fastag. I am attaching the report of the committee formed long time back which is the foundation for Fastag RFID sticker and boom barriers on the tolls. It is a small report and written in easy language and is at max a 30 minute read. The tag is passive tag which means it is not powered by itself but by the reader and then the reader reads the data on the RFID and does the deduction. NPCI is working as the clearing corporation here and settles the transactions between different parties.

When you buy a tag, the seller updates the software and links the tag ID with the vehicle number etc. Other details like issuer etc. I guess would also be updated. So when the reader reads the tag ID, the software identifies the vehicle number, the linked wallet/bank account number and then does the transaction.

So, reading the ID is one part and doing the transaction is second.

Sometimes, when the reader is unable to read the tag, my understanding is that the toll operator can enter the vehicle number and if there is balance, then I guess deduction can happen. This ensures a bad tag Id does not create a long line at the toll plaza.

Here is the report - Chairman_UIDAI.pdf

[overtaker]

This is a very old report. There is indeed ANPR based Fastag deduction going on. Few days back, when I was driving a vehicle without Fastag sticker as it was removed due to wind screen replacement, a Toll gate recognized the number plate and the car number was on the screen of the operator with the toll amount. No way it could have been done manually.

Originally Posted by autobahnjpr

There is no ANPR for Fastag. I am attaching the report of the committee formed long time back which is the foundation for Fastag RFID sticker and boom barriers on the tolls. It is a small report and written in easy language and is at max a 30 minute read. The tag is passive tag which means it is not powered by itself but by the reader and then the reader reads the data on the RFID and does the deduction. NPCI is working as the clearing corporation here and settles the transactions between different parties.

When you buy a tag, the seller updates the software and links the tag ID with the vehicle number etc. Other details like issuer etc. I guess would also be updated. So when the reader reads the tag ID, the software identifies the vehicle number, the linked wallet/bank account number and then does the transaction.

So, reading the ID is one part and doing the transaction is second.

Sometimes, when the reader is unable to read the tag, my understanding is that the toll operator can enter the vehicle number and if there is balance, then I guess deduction can happen. This ensures a bad tag Id does not create a long line at the toll plaza.

Here is the report - Attachment 2489958

[Torqueceptor]

I recently sold my Laura to OLX Autos. Before I handed over the vehicle, I took the fast tag off thinking that no toll would be deducted. To my surprise, 3 days hence I got messages of toll deductions at Hisar. I am assuming they further sold the car in that region. Got the fast tag blocked and the security amount is refunded to my online wallet now. Did not know about ANPR until now.

[maximus_fiat]

At many toll plazas, you can see the car number displayed in the boom barrier console while at others it is just XXXXX. It could be the case where APNR is installed they are reading the car plate, identify the tag connected to that plate and deducting the amount.

In case where number is not legible (non standard number plates) there is is relying on tag and then doing reverse lookup for number.

Can we have multiple fast tags linked to a number ?