Authorization for machine charges and machine movement. Before the money posts, before the trip is released.
Allow, refuse, or hold, against the concession contract and the public floor.
ALLOW · REFUSE · HOLD
Determined means allowed with an amount or refused with the clause; held is the rest.
Synthetic corpus, unsigned output, every figure with its denominator.
Card networks authorize every transaction against the network's rules before it settles. Nothing authorizes a toll charge against the concession contract, or a trip against the permit, before it happens.
A free-flow gantry reads a plate, classifies the vehicle, applies a tariff, and posts a charge. A dispatch system releases a delivery device onto a sidewalk. In both cases the operator's system acts first, and the question of whether the action was within the operator's authority is answered later, by a customer-service queue, an audit, or a court.
We put that question in front of the action. The operator's own system asks, receives allow, refuse, or hold, and posts or holds. Where the contract does not settle the answer, the answer is a hold instead of a guess.
Three points the operator's software already controls
Before it pays
Authorize charges before settlement.
- tolls
- fares
- curb fees
- charging sessions
Before it moves
Authorize missions before dispatch.
- routes
- permits
- operating windows
- restricted zones
When it is contested
What the machine was authorized to do at that moment.
- decision
- rule version
- inputs
- authority
- timestamp
We do not touch the vehicle's control loop. Braking, steering and obstacle handling are the operator's safety stack and the safety-case world, and we stay out of both.
Not this
- Not vehicle control.
- Not a tolling system.
- Not an audit log.
- Not a compliance dashboard.
The authorization layer between the machine and the consequence.
BR-101 Rio-Santos, a free-flow toll charge SYNTHETIC
The concession contract, its two amendments and the national regulation, converted clause by clause into a public register, and a synthetic corpus of passages determined before the charge. Every figure below is read from the study's ledger at a pinned commit.
The contract does not say whether its weekend factor applies before or after the category multiplier (register row TAR-06). Under one reading the 936 held passages total R$ 34.451,12; under the other, R$ 34.599,32. The determination holds them rather than posting either. A second open point, which trigger starts the payment window (row TIM-01), holds 98 more. The record says undetermined; the operator sees a hold.
allow with the amount · refuse with the clause · hold with the open pointWhat a wrong allow costs the operator, today
Wrong charge
2× refund within 7 days
Resolução ANTT 6.079/2026, art. 63-G, on the concessionaire.
Missing notification record
100% of the loss instead of 10%
19º Termo Aditivo, cl. 5.3 I and III, cl. 5.2.1.
Ambiguous rule
A hold instead of a dispute
TAR-06, 936 of 10,000.
As context, 1,324,797 free-flow non-payment fines were cancelled between 29 April and 24 August 2026 after the underlying tariff was regularised, of 3.8 million issued nationally (Ministério dos Transportes, 24 August 2026; Valor, 2 September 2026).
One authority, four acts, each with an outcome on the corpus
8,163 allowed with an amount, 803 refused with the clause, 1,034 held, of 10,000; R$ 67.668,45 over the allowed.
On the 502 charges posted at the wrong amount: without the determination, 431 of 502 refunded at double, R$ 3.373,01; with it in front, 398 post at the determined amount, 60 never post, 44 are held.
On the 318 unpaid passages: 11 at the 10% tier, 73 at 100%, 10 counted apart where the two texts disagree on the correspondence condition (row LOS-06).
1,278 of 10,000 chains carry a hold from an earlier act; 55 reports refuse because the reporting instrument has no class for an unpaid passage with a good plate read.
The refund, notification and report determinations run on the same synthetic corpus; no notification was sent and no refund was paid. The mandate carrying the four act classes is specified and unsigned.
Free-flow tolling is the first deployment. The same layer applies wherever a machine acts under a public rule.
Put one real rule through the layer.
A concessionaire
Proposing for the ANTT free-flow sandbox with a pre-charge determination named as a component of the solution.
Bring a concessionA payments firm or integrated agent
Determination in front of the charges it collects; the sandbox's identification, integrity and traceability duties come with the record; not the concessionaire's back office.
Join as integrated agentA city or a device operator
Putting one real permit or operating authorization through the layer before the machine moves.
Put a permit throughFor a payments firm joining as an integrated agent: the determination sits in front of the charges the agent collects; the sandbox's identification, integrity and traceability duties are met as a by-product of the determination record; the agent does not become the concessionaire's back office.
ANTT free-flow interoperability sandbox
Public hearing 8 October 2026; written contributions to 23 October 2026.
Audiência Pública ANTT 14/2026, on the draft Edital for the interoperability sandbox.
ANTT's stated objective for the sandbox is interoperability and payment choice across concessionaires: one portal where a driver sees the passages of several federal concessions and chooses the channel to pay (gov.br, ANTT notice of 27 August 2026 on Audiência Pública ANTT 14/2026); a pre-charge authorization can sit between the passage determination and settlement.
What to name in a contribution: a pre-charge determination against the concession contract and the public floor, as a component of the solution.
What this is and is not
Every study runs in batch against a synthetic population; the live path in front of an operator's charge or dispatch is what the first engagement establishes. A determination proves the engine made this determination given this register; it does not prove the authority agrees with the encoding. Nothing here is a safety claim, a savings claim, or a proposal for new regulation.
A live determination needs operational inputs the public rule does not contain, the current permit, rate tables, exemptions and account state; in production the operator supplies them. The mandate carrying the four act classes is specified and unsigned.