Turning public vehicles into moving data collectors

• Duration: June 2025 – May 2028
• Pilot cities: Tallinn (Estonia), Dublin (Ireland), Pula (Croatia)
• Total budget: €1.2M (TalTech budget)
• Project website

TayuTech develops a mobile and modular smart city sensing platform by equipping public service vehicles, such as buses and waste trucks, with compact sensor units. Instead of relying only on fixed sensor infrastructure, the project turns vehicles that already move through the city into data collectors for real-time urban monitoring.

The project focuses on practical city use cases where mobile sensing can improve coverage, reduce infrastructure costs, and support data-driven decision-making. Modular sensor units can include cameras, air quality monitors, and other environmental sensors. Onboard AI processes data locally before relevant insights are transmitted to a secure cloud environment and made available through the TayuTech Portal.

Pilot use cases

• Tallinn: detection of damaged or missing traffic signs to improve traffic safety and support autonomous mobility.
• Dublin: monitoring air quality and allergen levels for public health and urban environmental planning.
• Pula: mapping and identifying road surface defects to support predictive maintenance and improve ride comfort.

Expected impact

TayuTech demonstrates how cities can collect higher-quality urban data using flexible sensor modules and AI-enabled edge processing. The results are expected to support improved road safety, healthier urban environments, predictive infrastructure maintenance, and future smart mobility services.

The implementation of the pilot project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research through the FinEst Centre for Smart Cities pilot programme.