The article discusses a recent system outage of the Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system on Japanese expressways, which occurred from April 8 to 9, affecting 106 toll gates. During the outage, Central Nippon Expressway Co. (Nexco Central) opened the gates, allowing vehicles to pass without charge. However, the company announced that drivers must still pay the full toll amounts, explaining that their service terms do not exempt payment for system malfunctions. By April 8, Nexco Central had received payment offers from about 24,000 drivers, while an estimated 920,000 vehicles were on the highways during the downtime. The outage was caused by an unexpected error during a system update intended to facilitate discounted late-night tolls. Nexco Central may use security camera footage to track vehicles and determine toll charges, but it has not threatened legal action or indicated plans to waive the tolls at this time.
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