IMS rolling out new tools to help Indianapolis 500 fans navigate crowds

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is testing some technology at this weekend’s Indianapolis 500 that aims to answer a key question: How long is the line at the concession stand?

Last year, in partnership with sponsor NTT Data, IMS rolled out a tool that allowed fans to see relative wait times for vehicle and pedestrian traffic at the track’s 20 entrance gates. This year, the track is doing pilot testing of similar technology for its concession stands and restrooms.

“I’m honestly really excited about that,” said IMS President Doug Boles. “One of the biggest challenges we face is the concession lines.”

The entrance gate system uses IMS security cameras, artificial intelligence and edge computing to gather and analyze crowd data. The system then translates that data into a color-coded system: green for gates where there is little to no wait time, red for gates with a longer-than-average wait time and yellow for the in-between wait times.

“We’re not using unique personal data—we’re counting humans and using that data to estimate line times and wait times,” said Eric Clark, CEO of NTT Ltd.’s Americas region. “And the same thing with traffic—counting cars. We’re not looking at specific license plates, but we’re counting the number of cars to estimate traffic times and wait times.”

The use of edge computing—doing the data processing closer to the physical data source as a way to achieve faster and more reliable computer processing—means the crowd data is available to fans in real time, Clark said. “It’s constantly updating.”

Such a system is especially useful at a venue the size of IMS, which is a mile long and a half mile wide, Boles said. Because the track is so large, someone standing at one gate can’t see the lines at all the other gates, which are spread out along the perimeter of the property.

IMS didn’t widely publicize the entrance gate system last year, Boles said, because the technology was so new. But the speedway does plan to promote it more widely for this weekend’s race.  “We’re pushing it more this year, because we know that it works,” Boles said.

This year, IMS is piloting the similar system for the track’s concession and restroom areas.

During this year’s pilot, the concession and restroom wait-time information will be accessible only to IMS employees. The plan is to make it available to fans at next year’s race.

“Even if you’re sitting in your seat, you could look at the wait time before you decide if you really want to go to concessions right now or if you want to wait til later,” Clark said.

The concession stands are a challenge for IMS to manage, Boles said, because the Indianapolis 500 can draw more than 300,000 fans, and when there’s a lull in the race action, the concession stands get flooded with customers.

The data from the concessions pilot, Boles said, should help IMS get a better handle on things like how many people are at a given concession stand at any given time, how long they’re waiting in line and how long they wait between paying and receiving their order.

With that information, Boles said, IMS should be able to assess how many checkout lanes it needs at each concession area. Maybe a site with six checkout spots only needs four, for instance, or maybe a site with two checkout spots really needs one more.

Expediting the concessions experience could boost food and drink sales, Boles acknowledged, “but the real purpose for us is just about the customer service, and helping make sure that our customer is able to get a concession, a drink and a sandwich, and be able to get back to their seat without missing much of the race itself.”

NTT is a Japan-based digital consulting and IT services company with more than $30 billion in global annual revenues.