News

Tests of a new drug testing kit are now being carried out by the police. A number of parallel trials are being carried out of the kits, which can detect a number of illegal drugs. The kits are manufactured in the UK and are already supplied to police forces in Australia and Italy, where they have been used successfully for some time. Should the UK trials prove successful the kits will be introduced across the country during early 2012.

The European Commission has published new statistics showing that EU road fatalities decreased by 11 per cent in 2010. However, country by country statistics show that the number of deaths still varies greatly across the EU. Most countries achieved double-digit reductions in the number of road deaths over the past year, including Luxembourg (33%), Malta (29%) Sweden (26%) and Slovakia (26%).

Google has released Google Maps 5.7 for Android and added Transit Navigation (Beta), which currently provides over 12 billion miles of GPS-guided driving and walking directions per year. According to the company GPS turn-by-turn (or in this case, stop-by-stop) navigation is now available for public transit directions in 400+ cities around the globe.

Azure Dynamics Corporation, a specialist in the development and production of hybrid electric and electric components and powertrain systems for commercial vehicles, has announced an agreement with Ford Motor Company whereby Azure will integrate its proprietary plug-in hybrid (PHEV) technology into the Ford F-Series Super Duty product line.

UK transport secretary Philip Hammond yesterday cut the ribbon at the Hindhead twin bore tunnel in Surrey, signifying the end of a US$605 million, 1.8 km-long bypass of Hindhead village on the A3 between London and Portsmouth. The new tunnels will be used by 30,000 vehicles/day.

The next wave of telematics systems in China will be based on smartphone connectivity, and will harness the power of 3G networks, according to the latest report from Strategy Analytics, “China Domestic OEM Telematics Solutions - Chang'an In Call & Its Local Counterparts.”

Earlier this year, General Motors signed a definitive agreement with ABB Group to identify joint research and development projects that would reuse Chevrolet Volt battery systems, which will have up to 70 per cent of life remaining after their automotive use is exhausted. Recent research conducted by GM predicts that secondary use of 33 Volt batteries will have enough storage capacity to power up to 50 homes for about four hours during a power cut.

Agnik, a US-based data analytics company for distributed, mobile and embedded environments, has selected Kore Telematics to power its MineDrive usage-based automobile insurance application. This provides insurance carriers with detailed intelligence about driver and automobile performance, enabling more accurate adjustment of their offerings.

The International Institute for Information Design (IIID), in cooperation with FH St. Poelten University of Applied Sciences, Austria, has announced Traffic & Transport Information Design, a five semester MSc course starting in October and which is based on distance teaching with blocked modules at the FH St.Poelten, Austria. Taught by top experts from more than 10 countries, the English-language based MSc Traffic&Transport Information Design course is being operated under the auspices of UNESCO.