Networking & Communication Systems

German company myTaxi, which has revolutionised the European taxi market in less than a year, has extended its group of current investors. Daimler AG subsidiary company Car2go joins the board of the Hamburg-based company acquiring a minority stake. Lars Hinrichs, founder of XING and Hackfwd, is also added to the group of myTaxi shareholders. The existing investors T-Venture, the venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom, and KfW Bankengruppe, all contributed to the capital increase to promote the rapid growth

Through an innovative research project across several industries, Ericsson claims it will bring mobile connectivity to electric cars and put choice and control over the charging schedule into the hands of drivers. The new architecture allows drivers to control charging of cars while they are plugged into any ordinary power outlet. Additionally, the system directs energy costs to the car owners’ bill. The driver sets the time and amount to charge on a console in the car or remotely via a smartphone or tablet

The San Francisco Bay Area’s 511 traveller information system is now offering its first smartphone app for transit users. The free 511 Transit App can be downloaded through the Android Market with a version for iPhone 4 to be released soon. The new app provides door-to-door transit trip planning and scheduled departure times for transit routes near your location or from a location you specify. It includes information for 720 routes and more than 23,700 transit stops throughout the region. An interactive, dy