Skip to main content

Q-Free and Dars deliver C-ITS in Slovenia

Project on Ljubljana's ring road will see some VW vehicles receiving messages
By Adam Hill May 15, 2025 Read time: 2 mins
VW vehicles will receive in-car notifications such as traffic incidents, construction zones and low visibility alerts (image: Q-Free)

Q-Free has collaborated with Slovenian road operator Dars in the deployment of a new cooperative ITS (C-ITS) network in the eastern European country's capital, Ljubljana.

The system will enable equipped Volkswagen vehicles to receive in-car notifications such as traffic incidents, construction zones, low visibility alerts, and wrong-way driver warnings.

The new network sees 25 roadside units (RSUs) on more than 100km of Ljubljana’s major ring-road. These RSUs will transmit information to VW drivers, while receiving traffic flow information from them at the same time. 

Slovenia sits between Austria, Croatia, Hungary and Italy and is on a key freight route between the European nations. Q-Free says traffic volume, particularly around Ljubljana, has increased over the last few years, with some estimates suggesting a 5% annual rise. 

Q-Free and Dars have done something together on a smaller scale before: in 2018, a local pilot used nine RSUs with a central management system.

In this new deployment, Dars will also use five vehicle-mounted mobile units, probably around workzones and traffic incidents. 

“We put a high value on our relationship with Dars and though this solution is not part of our commercial portfolio, we decided to develop a customised solution that would exactly fit their needs,” explains Q-Free CEO Mark Talbot.

“I’m proud of our team for recognising that we’re not just in the traffic management business, we’re in the relationship business."

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • ITS Australia Awards: finalists revealed
    November 29, 2022
    Cisco, Moovit and Q-Free are among the companies up for 13th ITS Australia Annual Awards
  • EU funds cross-border driving of electric vehicles
    November 19, 2014
    The EU's TEN-T Programme is to invest over US$4.4 million in studies and pilot deployment of 115 high power re-charging points on Central European roads, to enable long-distance driving of electric vehicles and promote sustainable transport modes. The EU says Europe needs to adapt the road infrastructure to meet consumers' e-mobility requirements as the number of cleaner and more efficient vehicles, including electric ones, is increasing. One priority is to enable efficient long distance driving on an i
  • IBTTA summit hits right notes in Salzburg
    December 5, 2018
    In the birthplace of Mozart, Colin Sowman found that delegates at the IBTTA’s inaugural World Tolling Summit were playing a variety of interesting tunes The first World Tolling Summit took place in Salzburg, Austria this autumn. Created and organised by the International Bridge Tolling and Turnpike Association (IBTTA), the event was supported by its European counterpart Asecap and hosted by Austria’s tolling authority, Asfinag. The transfer of views, experience and practice both ways across the Atl
  • Airborne traffic monitoring - the future?
    March 1, 2013
    A new frontier in the quest to monitor road traffic is opening up… but using airborne drones to reduce the jams comes with some thorny issues. Chris Tindall reports. Imagine if you could rely on a system that provided all the data you needed to regulate traffic flow, route vehicles and respond swiftly to emergencies for a fraction of the cost of piloting a helicopter. That system exists, but as engineers and traffic managers start to explore the potential of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) – more commonly k