Rekor Selected for 7-Year South Carolina DOT Statewide Contract Valued in Excess of $22 Million

COLUMBIA, Md., Aug. 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rekor Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: REKR), which builds trusted data, privacy, and security solutions for real-world video and sensor networks, today announced it has been selected by the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) for a statewide contract with a seven-year term and an expected potential value in excess of $22 million. The award is subject to customary final contract negotiations.

Under the contract, Rekor will maintain, upgrade, and modernize SCDOT's statewide network of traffic count, vehicle classification, and speed monitoring sites, along with the agency's weigh-in-motion (WIM) sites. The work replaces aging in-road sensor infrastructure with non-intrusive, AI-powered roadside systems that deliver higher accuracy, require no lane closures to service, and produce data that exceeds Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) reporting standards.

Open to Every City and County in South Carolina
At SCDOT's discretion, the contract is available for cooperative purchasing by South Carolina cities, counties, municipalities, and metropolitan planning organizations. Local agencies can order directly against the statewide contract without running a separate competitive procurement. That removes months of bid administration for local governments and gives them the same pricing, technology, and service levels as the state.

Rekor expects this mechanism to accelerate local adoption across South Carolina and to increase the contract's potential total value above the $22 million statewide baseline over the seven-year term.

What Rekor Will Deliver

• Count, classification, and speed sites. Maintenance, upgrade, and modernization of SCDOT's permanent and short-term data collection sites statewide, delivering volume, speed, FHWA 13-bin classification, and individual vehicle records.
• Weigh-in-motion network. Maintenance and modernization of SCDOT's WIM sites, including real-time overweight vehicle detection to support pavement management, freight planning, and commercial vehicle enforcement.
• Data-as-a-Service managed service model. Rekor owns, installs, monitors, and services the infrastructure. SCDOT receives validated data rather than equipment to maintain.
• Cooperative access. Availability to local agencies statewide through the same contract vehicle.

Rekor Discover: Traffic Data Delivered Safely, Accurately, and Cost-Effectively
Rekor Discover delivers traffic data safely, accurately, and efficiently through an advanced Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) platform powered by AI-driven traffic detection technology.

Built on the understanding that no single traffic detection technology is ideal for every environment, Rekor evaluates the specific requirements of each deployment and selects the most effective solution to ensure reliable, high-quality traffic data. By leveraging the strengths of multiple detection technologies while minimizing their limitations, Rekor provides clients with accurate, timely, and actionable insights while maintaining project schedules and budget objectives. This flexible approach enables transportation agencies and infrastructure operators to make better-informed decisions based on dependable traffic data delivered when and where it is needed.

Rekor Discover AI technology: Analyzes live traffic video to collect comprehensive vehicle data, including FHWA 13-category vehicle classification, micromobility, speed, gap, headway, axle count, and axle configuration, all processed locally at the edge without relying on cloud connectivity. This non-intrusive, roadside solution keeps technicians out of active traffic lanes and eliminates the need for lane closures during installation, maintenance, and repairs.

The system delivers highly accurate traffic data, even in challenging operating conditions such as heavy congestion and stop-and-go traffic, where traditional in-road sensors like inductive loops and piezoelectric devices often experience reduced performance and accuracy. Agencies also benefit from advanced, real-time Automatic Incident Detection capabilities, including the identification of stranded vehicles, wrong-way drivers, collisions, near misses, and developing traffic congestion. Each incident is supported by video evidence, providing transportation agencies with actionable intelligence that improves situational awareness, accelerates response times, and supports Vision Zero initiatives aimed at reducing traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries.

Privacy Protection: Rekor provides comprehensive privacy protection through patented automatic anonymization, enabling entire images or specific elements, such as license plates and human faces, to be obscured. Because processing occurs locally on roadside edge devices, image data is analyzed on-site rather than transmitted to the cloud, supporting a privacy-by-design approach and compliance with applicable state privacy regulations.

Rekor Discover AI Loop Signature™ technology uses patent-pending algorithms to generate FHWA vehicle classifications from existing in-road inductive loop infrastructure. Traditionally, state Departments of Transportation have relied on a combination of inductive loop detectors and piezoelectric sensors installed in each traffic lane to collect traffic data and vehicle classification information. However, approximately 90% of system failures are attributed to piezoelectric sensor issues, which require frequent maintenance, repair, and replacement, resulting in significant costs and traffic disruptions. By applying Rekor's AI Loop Signature technology, SCDOT can extract modern, high-quality vehicle classification data from existing operational loop detectors, extending the value and service life of prior infrastructure investments.

Rekor's AI-driven approach is powered by a unique data asset: thousands of locations where loop detectors, piezoelectric sensors, and video-based traffic sensors are co-located and monitoring the same traffic lanes. This extensive dataset enables continuous algorithm training and validation, ensuring the technology remains accurate, reliable, and responsive to evolving traffic patterns.

Discover Weigh-in-Motion Solutions
Discover Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) solutions combine in-road weight measurement technology with AI-powered roadside vehicle detection, giving agencies the ability to identify not only when a vehicle exceeds legal weight limits, but also exactly which vehicle is involved and who is operating it.

The platform integrates weigh-in-motion measurements, USDOT number recognition, for overweight truck identification, and FHWA vehicle classification into a single, unified record. This comprehensive approach provides enforcement agencies with actionable intelligence in real time, enabling overweight vehicle alerts to be delivered while the vehicle is still in transit.

By connecting vehicle weight data with verified vehicle and carrier identification, Rekor helps transportation agencies improve enforcement efficiency, enhance roadway safety, protect infrastructure from excessive wear, and support data-driven commercial vehicle operations management.

Management Commentary
"South Carolina has been one of the clearest examples anywhere of what happens when an agency modernizes how it collects roadway data. This contract takes that work statewide. We are replacing sensors that fail in the pavement with systems that sit safely beside the road, and we are handing SCDOT validated data instead of equipment to maintain. Opening the contract to every city and county in the state means a small municipality gets the same technology as the state, without running its own time-consuming procurement process," said Mark Phillips, General Manager, Rekor Systems

About Rekor Systems, Inc.
Rekor Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: REKR) builds trusted data, privacy, and security solutions for real-world video and sensor networks. Rekor's AI-powered roadway intelligence platforms are deployed across the United States, delivering real-time data and actionable insights to transportation agencies, law enforcement, and commercial operators.
For more information, visit Rekor.ai; for Go-Secure.Video, visit go-secure.video.

Forward-Looking Statements

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Media & Investor Relations Contact:
Rekor Systems, Inc.
Charles Degliomini
cdegliomini@rekor.ai