JJ Eden, executive director of North Carolina Turnpike Authority, explains why he believes the challenge for traffic and tolling technology is no longer in creating systems that work – it’s about ensuring that systems work together
Over the past decade, I’ve watched connected vehicle payments, V2X, AI, and other advanced technologies move from early discussion to real-world deployment. The pace of change today is unlike anything I experienced earlier in my career. Yet despite all this innovation, I’ve come to believe that the biggest challenge we face is no longer whether the technology works. It does.
For many years, our industry focused on basic feasibility. Could systems function reliably outside controlled environments? Could communications operate at highway speeds? Could back-office platforms handle real-time transactions and data? That phase is largely behind us. What has replaced it is different – and in many ways harder. The problem now is deciding how to manage technology once it exists.
“The problem now is deciding how to manage technology once it exists”
The questions we’re asking today are how we choose which tools to implement, how they fit together, and how to integrate them without creating long-term constraints. That requires a broader perspective. Adjacent industries such as automotive, fintech, cloud computing, and retail payments are facing the same convergence pressures we are, and there is a lot that we can learn from how they are responding.
Connected vehicle payments make this convergence tangible. A single in-vehicle transaction may involve a toll agency, an automaker, a payment network, a cloud provider, and system integrators. No single party owns the entire experience, yet everyone shares responsibility for reliability, security, and customer trust. In practice, success depends far less on any individual technology than on how well these groups work together.
One lesson I’ve learned is that these systems cannot be designed for tolling alone. The same in-vehicle payment framework that supports tolls will inevitably be expected to support parking, fuel, and other transactions. If those use cases aren’t considered early, adding them later becomes far more complex. Systems often struggle not because the technology breaks, but because they were never designed to scale across industries.
At the same time, V2X deployments are accelerating, with safety and mobility use cases moving from pilots into production. AI is increasingly layered on top to manage data volumes and support decisionmaking. These technologies don’t arrive neatly packaged. They must be integrated into back-office systems that were often designed for a very different era. This is where many initiatives falter. Legacy platforms weren’t built for cross-brand interoperability. Introducing new capabilities without a clear integration strategy can create silos and inconsistent customer experiences.
When pressure mounts, there’s a temptation to build proprietary systems to solve immediate needs. I’ve seen that deliver short-term progress, but often at the expense of long-term flexibility. A standards-based approach has proven more durable. In the end, the future of tolling, V2X, and connected vehicle services won’t be defined by who deploys the most advanced technology first. It will be shaped by who can integrate responsibly, collaborate across industries, and lead with clarity.
This article first appeared in the February/March 2026 edition of TTi magazine
