News

ITS (UK) has developed a ‘Scale of connections for co-operation of connected vehicles’ to help people understand how connected their vehicles are. It mirrors the existing scale for automated vehicles, the SAE international standard, which goes from Level 1 (driver assistance required) to Level 5 (fully autonomous). The ITS (UK) scale, developed by the group’s Connected and Automated Vehicles (C/AV) Forum and supported by the Department for Transport and Highways England, uses letters instead. “Currently a

Private ride-hailing giant Uber, which is aiming to follow rival Lyft in becoming a public company this year, has warned that it may never be profitable. The candid admission comes in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as Uber prepares for an initial public offering (IPO) which it reportedly hopes will value the company at $100 billion. This potential IPO figure is some way below the $120bn predicted by analysts just last year. And Uber warns: “We have incurred significant loss

Flowbird has deployed touchscreen terminals at three park and ride sites in the UK city of Durham, allowing users to pay for multiple tickets in a single transaction. The company says its Cale Web Terminal Touch product, installed by scheme operator NSL, is reducing queues at Belmont, Howlands Farm and Sniperley sites. The terminals, installed by scheme operator NSL, allow users to pay via coin, credit/debit card as well as Apple Pay and the Android equivalent. The system’s back office allows us

Daimler Trucks has acquired a majority stake in Torc Robotics in a bid to commercialise highly automated trucks operating at SAE Level 4 on US roads. Roger Nielsen, CEO of Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA), says: “Torc’s Level 4 system has been shown to operate well for both urban and highway driving in rain, snow, fog, and sunshine.” Martin Daum, member of the board of management at Daimler, says the deal will combine the company’s truck hardware with Torc’s “agile software development”. Torc i

New York’s mayor Bill de Blasio has signed an executive order to reduce the city’s on-road public sector vehicle fleet. The move is part of a commitment to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050. The city will remove 1,000 vehicles from its fleet by June 2021 and reduce the number of take-home vehicles by at least 500. Additionally, it will replace at least 350 SUVs with electric plug-in sedans and promote greater vehicle efficiency by using advanced data collection. “Eliminating unnecessary vehicles fro

Telensa is to deploy its Planet intelligent street lighting system as part of an upgrade project in the city of Palmerston, Australia. Athina Pascoe-Bell, Palmerston mayor, says: “Telensa’s smart technology will improve our street lighting service, save money and provide a platform for future smart city innovations.” The city, in Australia’s Northern Territory, will replace 5,000 streetlights with wirelessly connected LEDs, controlled by Telensa’s central management system hosted by Amazon Web Services

Jaguar Land Rover is using PTV’s Vissim, a multi-modal microsimulation tool to simulate and test connected and automated vehicle (C/AV) concepts. Vissim can be used for the modelling of multi-modal urban or motorway networks and for testing the design and feasibility of transport infrastructure projects. It can also be used by researchers, vehicle manufacturers, transport planners, traffic engineers and public authorities to help design future transport systems, testing the impact of C/AVs on road network

German technology group ZF Friedrichshafen is to acquire Wabco, a supplier of braking control systems for commercial vehicles. ZF says commercial vehicle braking solutions are central for the control of automated driving functions such as emergency braking manoeuvres of trucks and trailers. Wolf-Henning Scheider, CEO of ZF, says the deal will help “create a foundation” for the company to offer systems for automated mobility solutions for passengers and goods. ZF expects that automated driv

The deadline for US college students to take part in ITS America’s annual essay competition is fast approaching – entries must be in by Sunday 14 April. The competition, sponsored by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), invites students of transportation, engineering and public policy to share ‘thought provoking’ visions for the future of transport. The topic is: ‘How do you envision disruptive technologies impacting transportation systems to make them safer, greener or smarter over the next 10 years?’ U

Daimler, owner of Mercedes-Benz, has partnered with Chinese automotive group Zhejiang Geely Holding Group to develop Smart’s electric cars. Smart makes small vehicles designed for urban driving and the new joint venture will assemble the next generation of Smart products at a factory in China. International sales are due to begin in 2022. Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the Daimler board, says: “Separately, Mercedes-Benz will produce a compact electric vehicle [EV] at the Hambach plant, sustaining employ

Congestion pricing is the solution to inner city traffic gridlock, according to Microsoft’s chief economist, Michael Schwarz. Speaking at the IBTTA’s Annual Technology Summit in Orlando, Florida last week, Schwarz said “traffic will be a thing of the past”, citing the difference between the traffic volumes in the free use and managed lanes as evidence. He also highlighted Singapore’s plans to have satellite tolling on all cars in 2020 and noted that almost all new cars are already fitted with SIM car

Jenoptik Traffic Solutions UK has announced its Vector SR camera has achieved UK Home Office type approval to operate as an unattended enforcement device for measurement of vehicle speeds. Jenoptik says the Vector SR camera was developed to measure ‘spot speeds’ over a short section of road, such as those which are prone to collisions. The solution uses the Vector2 integrated automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) camera platform, working alongside Jenoptik’s 3D tracking radar device, and can be m