Carma Technology, in partnership with the Texas Department of Transportation and the North Central Texas Council of Governments, today released final results from Miles Matter — the largest road usage charge pilot ever conducted in the United States.
With more than 41,000 enrolled participants and over 64 million miles of real-world driving captured, Miles Matter exceeded the combined scale of all prior U.S. RUC pilots. The program demonstrated that policy-grade mileage data, sustained user engagement, and operational flexibility can be achieved simultaneously — without in-vehicle hardware — using a smartphone-first approach.
An order-of-magnitude jump in scale
Most U.S. RUC pilots have involved hundreds or a few thousand volunteers. Miles Matter operated at orders-of-magnitude greater scale, providing statistically meaningful insight into real-world driving behavior, user retention, administrative performance, and cost dynamics under sustained participation.
Independent evaluation by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute confirmed the pilot's relevance for future statewide and multi-state RUC planning, particularly around cost scaling, policy design, and administrative feasibility.
A direct policy interface between agencies and travelers
Beyond mileage collection, Miles Matter demonstrated how smartphones can function as a direct policy interface between agencies and travelers. Participants received transparent, near-real-time feedback on road usage, allowing them to understand how travel choices influence charges and respond to pricing or incentive structures — capabilities not possible with fuel taxes or hardware-based systems.
Cloud-native rule changes in minutes, not months
Because the platform is cloud-based and hardware-free, agencies were able to modify program rules and parameters rapidly, implementing policy updates in minutes rather than months. Evaluation results also showed that per-user administrative costs decline sharply at higher enrollment levels — a critical requirement for future statewide deployment.
Implications for the next decade of road funding
Miles Matter provides strong evidence that smartphone-based RUC systems can support mileage-based funding, managed-lane integration, and tolling interoperability while avoiding the cost, friction, and equity challenges associated with dedicated in-vehicle devices.
For state DOTs evaluating long-term replacements for the motor fuel tax, the pilot's findings reset the baseline assumption that a national RUC programme requires custom in-vehicle equipment. It doesn't.