Saint-Péray-based Acorel is reframing what computer vision can look like in public transport — and surveillance isn’t part of the picture.
Every day, millions of passengers board buses, trams, and trains across Europe — yet most operators still struggle to know exactly how their networks are being used in real time. Overcrowded vehicles, misallocated fleets, and reactive planning remain persistent problems. French transport tech company Acorel thinks the answer lies in smarter data, not more cameras.
The company has developed a computer vision system that gives public transport operators accurate, live insight into passenger flows — without recording a single face, storing any footage, or collecting personal data of any kind. Instead, overhead counting sensors process passenger movements anonymously, measuring boardings, alightings, and occupancy rates as they happen.
The distinction matters. As cities accelerate their smart mobility strategies, public anxiety over AI-driven surveillance has never been higher. Acorel’s approach flips the usual trade-off: operators get the operational intelligence they need, while passengers remain entirely anonymous.
“Computer vision can be a powerful optimisation tool when it is designed responsibly,” said Dimitri Rudenko, Business Development & Project Director at Acorel. “Efficiency and data protection are not contradictory — they are complementary.”
The system is fully GDPR-compliant and built to function in variable lighting and high-density environments across buses, trams, trains, and other public transport settings. No facial recognition. No video storage. No personal data of any kind.
For operators, the practical benefits are significant: real-time occupancy monitoring, early congestion alerts, more efficient fleet allocation, and long-term planning grounded in reliable ground-level data — all without deploying a single surveillance camera.
As European cities push forward with smart mobility ambitions, Acorel is positioning itself not as a surveillance vendor, but as an operational intelligence layer for modern transit networks
