Location Based Systems

A successful consortium led by the UK’s Transport research Laboratory (TRL) has been selected by Innovate UK to deliver the GATEway project (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment), one of three projects awarded to test driverless vehicles in UK urban locations. The US$12.5 million project will see three trials of different types of zero emission automated vehicles within an innovative, technology-agnostic testing environment set in the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The ‘prime meridian’ was establi

TomTom’s Telematics business has acquired Fleetlogic, one of the leading fleet management service providers in the Netherlands, which the company says strengthens TomTom Telematics’ position as the market leader in the Netherlands and in Europe. The acquisition includes the companies TripXs and Inalise and adds 27,000 subscriptions to the TomTom Telematics installed base. The total installed base of TomTom Telematics now consists of more than 450,000 vehicles. "The fleet management market in the Net

Toyota Motor Corporation is to launch a newly-developed set of active safety technologies from 2015. These are designed to help prevent or mitigate collisions across a wide range of vehicle speeds and will be offered in the form of two Toyota Safety Sense packages, to be rolled out across most passenger models and grades in Japan, North America and Europe by the end of 2017. Both packages will be made available at price levels chosen to encourage widespread use. Two packages will be available depending o

Beginning in 2015, some of Toyota Motor Corporation's new models will be compatible with advanced vehicle-infrastructure cooperative systems that use a wireless frequency reserved for intelligent transport systems (ITS). This compatibility will be offered as an option for the Toyota Safety Sense P active safety package that will be made available in 2015 on selected new models sold in Japan. The systems will use the dedicated ITS frequency of 760 MHz for road-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-vehicle communicati

A three-month trial of 360-degree camera technology carried out by Brigade Electronics and Continental has been hailed a success by the two companies. Said to be the first trial of the technology on a fleet of large articulated heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), the project used the Brigade Backeye360 Elite system with Continental’s powerful ASL360 camera system on a fleet of rigid and articulated HGVs owned by UK retailer Marks and Spencer. Backeye360 Elite uses four ultra-wide angle camera lenses mounted

Flo, the driving app launched by Dutch software developer Decos, gives drivers real-time feedback that the company says helps them be safer drivers and save money on fuel and maintenance costs in the process. During each trip, Flo awards points for good driving, such as smooth acceleration and steady speed and deducts points for poor driving, including hard braking and driving too fast around corners. The app gives real-time audio and visual feedback while driving and every trip is automatically saved fo

The European communicating cars test drive along the Cooperative ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) Corridor spanning Austria, Germany and the Netherlands has reached its final destination in the Netherlands. Initiated by NXP Semiconductors, the test drive also included Siemens, Honda, Cohda Wireless, TÜV Süd and automobile clubs AvD and ANWB. The ITS showcase ended in Helmond following a week-long tour which began at the Electronica electronics trade show in Munich. The event saw a convoy of five Ho