The Problem
With the Phase 1 ticketing platform live and producing a clean digital manifest, the harder problem surfaced. EPU needed a way to verify actual passenger counts against those manifests without stationing 8 checkers at terminals every day, plus a live operational view of where each bus is and whether it is on schedule. The brief was practical: cut headcount cost in 1 specific role, give the control room a single map, and do it without ripping out the existing CCTV hardware. No "AI strategy" theater — a working system that survives Monday morning.
Constraints
- Existing WVP-PRO + GB/28181 NVR hardware had to stay — no rip-and-replace
- Edge inference required: bandwidth from buses is unreliable
- Indonesian operations team — UI and SOPs must be in Bahasa
- Must run on commodity infrastructure, not hyperscaler GPU clusters
- Compliance with Hino telemetry API contracts and refresh-token lifecycle
- Single-team delivery — no room for a 10-person AI lab
Our Approach
We took full engineering ownership end-to-end. Hardware integration with the existing WVP-PRO + GB/28181 NVR stack, snapshot pipeline into a YOLO26 inference sidecar, passenger count reconciliation against the digital manifest from the Phase 1 ticketing platform, and a Hino API client with token lifecycle management for GPS telemetry. On top of that — a real-time operations dashboard built on MapLibre + deck.gl with PostGIS-backed route geometry and OSRM polyline rebuilds for cleaner playback. The system is deployed on a multi-tenant Docker + Hetzner setup with Grafana, Prometheus, and Loki for observability. Clean Architecture in Go on the backend — domain, usecase, adapter, handler — so the modules survive past this project.
Gallery
Outcome
- AI passenger counting pipeline running on existing NVR hardware — no new CCTV needed
- Real-time map view consolidating GPS, status, and manifest data into one operations screen
- Reconciles live counts against the Phase 1 digital manifest
- Designed to replace 8 manual checker positions when fully rolled out
- Foundation for future fleet intelligence products under Idin Studio
- Re-engaged organically by the client — Phase 2 awarded without a competitive pitch
Why this matters
Most "AI deployments" in Indonesia stop at the slide deck. This one runs at terminals every day, reconciles against real manifests, and is measured against a headcount line on the operations budget. That is the work we want. EPU is also a reminder of why we exist as an agency. The client came back to us directly — not through a marketplace, not through a sales funnel. Organic trust earned by shipping is the only acquisition channel that scales without burning capital.