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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.

Activu Corporation, a leading provider of IP-based visualisation and collaboration solutions for mission-critical command and control centre environments, has been qualified as an approved vendor by Florida’s Department of Transportation (FDOT) following independent testing and validation by FDOT’s Traffic Engineering Research Laboratory (TERL) in Tallahassee. The IP-based visualisation software has been approved as fully compatible with FDOT’s SunGuide software for ITS, meaning that Activu’s video wall sol

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded US$3 million to UQM Technologies for the development of non-rare-earth magnet electric motors for use in electric and hybrid electric vehicles. The company will cost-share 25 per cent of the $4 million effort under the development programme.

A preliminary study to develop a modern intermodal hub at the Fontanarossa International Airport in Catania, Italy, will receive €1 million (US$1.44) in EU support from the 2010 TEN-T Annual Call. The study will develop plans for the optimal solution for building a single intermodal hub at the airport able to provide an effective multimodal interchange.

Fujinon (Europe) and Fujifilm Europe have completed a merger through which Fujifilm has taken a major step towards the consolidation and integration of core business activities in Europe. Prior to that, in July 2010, Fujifilm Corporation, Tokyo, had absorbed its wholly-owned direct subsidiary Fujinon Corporation which lead to respective changes being initiated in other regions of the world.

The use of speed cameras in urban areas is said to make major savings overall, according to a new study. A two year cost-benefit analysis published online in Injury Prevention shows that the deployment of speed cameras in urban areas saves vast amounts of money as well as lives.

UTI, a Romanian headquartered company, has won a tender launched by the city of Szczecin, in Poland, for the development and implementation of a traffic management system. The contract, which is worth around US$2.58 million, was won against bids submitted by Peek Traffic of the Netherlands, Kapsch of Austria and Sprint and Telsat of Poland.

The US National Highway Institute has announced the availability of the Federal Highway Administration’s Principles of Evacuation Planning Tutorial (133107), a web-based training course that provides an introductory overview of evacuation planning topics and common considerations. It covers the roles and responsibilities of local, regional, and state agencies involved in the evacuation process, while highlighting the importance of collaboration.

An exhibition that will address the broader issue of the hazard that standard guardrails create for motorcyclists is being hosted next week by Members of the European Parliament Corien Wortmann-Kool (The Netherlands) and Ines Ayala-Sender (Spain). “Safe roadside barriers for motorcyclists” being held from 23-25 April, will showcase a prototype friendly road restraint system, designed to offer better protection for motorcyclists. Current standard European roadside barriers (EN 1317) have not been designed n

In 2011, Australia registered 1,292 road deaths, which is the lowest road toll since 1946. In the same year, for crash protection, 72 per cent of cars tested under the Australian New Car Assessment Programme have been rated five stars. In 2004, the top score was only earned by 14 per cent of the cars tested under the programme. Mahindra car, which is made in India, has earned a 'marginal' rating of three stars. Of any Australian-made vehicles, the latest sedan of Toyota Aurion, which will be available in Ma