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Heavy duty hybrid vehicles in future may need to switch to zero emissions when entering a city - and be competitive in their total cost of ownership. Speaking at this week’s ITS European Congress in Eindhoven, Netherlands, Steven Wilkins, senior research scientist at TNO, discussed the ORCA (optimised real-world cost-competitive modular hybrid architecture for heavy duty vehicles) project’s objectives of matching the total cost of ownership with efficiency. “Connected to that is downsizing the engine

Mick Slattery has left Conduent Transportation after just 10 months as CEO. The company said he made the decision for ‘personal reasons’. Slattery “has decided to leave Conduent to pursue other opportunities outside of the transportation industry”, the firm said in a statement. “An internal and external search is underway for a successor.” He joined the company in August 2018 after a career in management consultancy with an emphasis on technology and digital. Speaking to ITS International earlier this

Kapsch TrafficCom has installed a mobility solution in the City of Valladolid, Spain, to provide commuters with a single point of information on transport schedules.

“Real problems” need to emerge in the development of an urban mobility lab before you can begin to find solutions, according to Raimo Tengvall, project manager of Forum Virium Helsinki. Speaking at this week’s ITS European Congress in Eindhoven, Netherlands, Tengvall shared lessons learned from the company’s Jätkäsaari urban mobility lab in the Finnish capital, Helsinki. “In the Jätkäsaari area we were having 80 million passengers going through a street network of a new residential area where there is a

Cloud computing company Alibaba Cloud has partnered with Sena Traffic Systems to build smart traffic system in Malaysia which it claims could reduce travel time by 12%. Selina Yuan, president of Alibaba, says: "The smart traffic solution will constantly learn and adapt to changing traffic environments, making the traffic management system a smart learning platform and no longer just an analytic tool." Alibaba is to provide its cloud computing resources and City Brain, a solution which uses real-time c

Panasonic has launched an electric vehicle (EV) charging service in India with the aim of helping fleets owners manage their vehicles more efficiently. Panasonic says its Nymbus service combines physical components such as charging stations, swap stations, on board charges, telematics systems and the virtual components like cloud service, analytics, intuitive dashboard, and artificial intelligence. Initially, Panasonic will provide the charging service for 150 electric three wheelers offered by SmartE an

The Transit Authority of River City (TARC) has released a mobility app in Louisville, Kentucky, which allows users to plan and book trips across multiple modes of transport. TARC says the integrated mobility platform allows users to access Uber, Lyft, Bird’s scooters and LouVelo’s bike-share service. Sumithra Jagannath, digital president at ZED, says the company’s Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platform is powering the app and provides “analytics and real-time data on system usage, origins and destination

Atkins has joined forces with electric aircraft company Vertical Aerospace in the UK city of Bristol to develop intercity air taxi services. The partners are aiming to develop a blueprint for urban air mobility, with Atkins designing the system and infrastructure around the air vehicle. Atkins says the blueprint will cover aviation infrastructure, passenger experience, operating models, intelligent mobility and cyber security. Philip Hoare, president of Atkins, says the development of a system i

Authors Oliver Gassmann, Jonas Böhm and Maximilian Palmié have published a book to aid stakeholders in the development of smart cities. The authors say Smart Cities: Introducing Digital Innovations to Cities explores how the smart city concept promises to solve urban issues such as mobility, pollution and inclusion. The book is expected to serve as road map and provide answers to the following questions: • What core elements constitute smart cities? • How can the digital shadow of city element

InDriver has launched its ride-hailing service in Johannesburg, South Africa, which allows the driver and rider to negotiate lower fares. A report by IT News Africa says drivers can use the InDriver app to accept or ignore offers as well as negotiate for a higher price. Rifqa Carr, InDriver spokesperson says: “Drivers have the freedom to choose whichever ride request they like, without any risk of being penalised. They’re also able to see the full fare, from point A to point B, and can then decide

Ford’s GoBike is to launch an adaptive bike-share pilot programme for disabled people living in the city of Oakland, San Francisco Bay. The 26-week pilot stems from an agreement with the Bay Area Outreach & Recreation Program (BORP), Lyft and the Oakland Department of Transportation (DoT). Caroline Samponaro, head of bike, pedestrian and scooter policy at Lyft, says: “Launching this programme will allow us to learn more about the specific needs of the disability community and work closely with them.” B