News

In Jiangyin city, in China's Jiangsu province, the No.99 bus route was launched yesterday, the first in the country to be operated exclusively by electric buses.

The newspaper China Daily has reported that last month a driverless car, a Hongqi HQ3 with full intellectual property rights developed by the National University of Defense Technology, travelled on an expressway linking Changsha and Wuhan, the capitals of Hunan and Hubei provinces, under full computer and sensor control.

CO2 emissions from Danish cars are the lowest within the EU, according to new data, based on information provided by all EU member countries about passenger cars sold during 2010 and published by the European Environmental Agency. Danish passenger cars' CO2 emissions amounted to 126.6 g/km, followed by Portugal at 127.3 g/km and France at 130.5 g/km. Denmark is also among the countries that have reduced their CO2 emissions from new cars the most compared with the past year.

VeriFone Systems has announced its Payware Mobile Enterprise and managed services solution has been selected by Austrian company Westbahn Management for use as a mobile ticketing validation and payment service when its innovative rail service begins this December.

The technology architecture associated with electric vehicle (EV) charging is continuing to evolve as utilities and other key players in the industry ecosystem identify business requirements and risks associated with adding significant new demands on the electrical grid. One of the most pressing challenges is related to securing financial transactions and end-to-end communications throughout the EV charging infrastructure, and a recent report from Pike Research indicates that these areas will be the focus o

Innovative measures to cut the number of rush hour road works have been announced by UK Transport Secretary Philip Hammond. Under ‘lane rental’ schemes, councils would be able to charge utility companies to dig up the busiest roads during peak times when road works cause the most disruption. Companies would be able to avoid the charges by carrying out works during quieter periods or, if appropriate, at night.

At a CAGR of 27 per cent, commercial telematics systems shipments are set for solid growth. However, the fleet management industry continues to be haunted by structural problems: extreme levels of fragmentation with too many ‘me too’ and ‘dots-on-a-map’ providers and proprietary solutions littering the landscape.

The US Department of Transportation’s (DOT’s) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) has announced six winners of a national competition seeking ideas for using wireless technology to enable vehicles to communicate with each other. The winning ideas may be incorporated into ongoing research on using technology to improve vehicle safety and transportation operations.

State Farm and Hughes Telematics are announcing a major joint effort to bring connected vehicle services and telematics savings programmes to drivers across North America. The new effort is called In-Drive and has been tailored specifically for State Farm policyholders by Hughes. The service debuts in Illinois in September with more states to be added in 2012.

The current UK government, which pledged to cut bureaucracy, had set its sights on the annual MOT vehicle inspections. “Cars are more reliable and the annual test has not changed in 50 years,” transport secretary Philip Hammond announced. The plan was for vehicle testing every two years instead of annually.