Enhancing safety by investing in innovative solutions
Safety is a field of innovation in its own right, supported by centres of excellence. The centre of excellence in Villognon, France, develops solutions dedicated to high-speed rail maintenance, leveraging models that combine artificial intelligence and professional expertise to guarantee safety, optimise maintenance and ensure line availability.
Detect, alert, prevent
On highways, collisions with patrol vans are a major issue. In 2025, 46 emergency response vehicles were struck on the VINCI Autoroutes network – one per week on average. To prevent such incidents, VINCI Autoroutes subsidiary Cyclope.ai developed PatrolCare, an alert system designed to protect patrol crews on duty. Less than two seconds after a patrol van stops, a camera creates a detection zone extending 200 to 250 metres behind the vehicle and across adjacent lanes. If the footage analysed in real time by AI shows a vehicle on a dangerous trajectory within this virtual corridor, a loud alarm – exceeding 120 decibels – sounds to alert both the patrol crew and the driver. In 2025, over 100 VINCI Autoroutes patrol vans were equipped with this system, which won the 2024 Road Safety Innovation Award. In other parts of the world, other risks pose a threat to infrastructure and teams. In Brazil, dealing with vegetation fires presents an operational challenge for the Entrevias network, which is located in the heart of São Paulo’s agricultural belt, where fire is sometimes used to extend farmland. The highway’s surveillance cameras now use AI to detect smoke or fire outbreaks in real time. Lastly, airports face other challenges. At Lisbon and London Gatwick airports, for instance, VINCI Airports has installed automatic image recognition systems to detect debris on runways.