News

Nissan GB has adopted a technology that’s almost 200 years old to create a concept solution for reducing the growing problem of smartphone distraction at the wheel. The Nissan Signal Shield is a prototype compartment within the arm rest of a Nissan Juke that is lined with a Faraday cage, an invention dating back to the 1830s, consisting of an enclosure made of a conductive material, such as wire mesh, which blocks electromagnetic fields. Once a mobile device is placed in the compartment and the lid closed,

Heavy-duty electric transportation specialist Proterra is to participate in an autonomous bus trial with the University of Nevada, Reno and its Living Lab Coalition partners which aims to deal with real road conditions from the perspective of public transit systems. It will also , and underline the most challenging aspects related to mass transportation, such as dense and dynamic environments, degraded conditions and a need for swift emergency response. The pilot will also explore a new set of robotic perc

Key roadway improvements have the potential to save 63,700 lives and prevent 353,560 serious injuries in the US over a 20-year period, according to a new report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. With the US ranked nearly last among high-income nations in annual traffic fatalities, which continue to rise, AAA urges the Trump Administration to make repairing and maintaining America's roadways a top priority. With an investment of US$146 billion, the report recommends six cost-effective roadway impro

Metron, a consortium of Arcadis, Mott MacDonald, architecture house Foster + Partners, local architect Architectus and Robert Bird Group, has been awarded the underground station design and technical services contract as part of Stage 2 of the Sydney Metro project. With 31 stations and 66km of new metro rail, Sydney Metro is Australia's biggest public transport project. Stage 2 will include a 30 kilometre extension of metro rail under Sydney Harbour and through new CBD stations. Metron will lead the enginee

Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) has renewed its traffic data services contract with Inrix and will also employ Inrix Dangerous Slowdowns, a newly launched service that warns drivers and DOTs of sudden reductions in speed or stopped traffic on the road. Dangerous Slowdowns is part of the new Inrix Safety Alerts product suite which also includes Inrix Incidents and Inrix Road Weather, to provide real-time insight on roadways to inform drivers and make roadways safer. The Safety Alerts product suite co

Swiss power and automation technology company ABB is to provide two ABB HVC300P fast-chargers for a Scania electric bus trial in Östersund, Sweden. The chargers are based on OppCharge, an open interface for the automated charging of electric buses from any manufacturer, and use a pantograph on the infrastructure to connect the bus to the charging point. The buses will be operated by Nettbuss, a subsidiary of the Norwegian State Railways, NSB. The two charging stations will be built at both ends of a 14-kilo

Iteris has launched the latest addition to its Vantage roadway sensors product range, VantageLive!, a cloud-based transportation analytics service that allows users to view intersection activity by automatically collecting and analysing vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian data on a continuous basis, with data availability 24/7/365 from their existing Iteris detection infrastructure. By accessing connected intersection systems within an agency’s network, VantageLive! collects data provided from Iteris Vantage p

A ‘packed’ two day conference programme is promised for the first Smart Urban Mobility Solutions (SUMS 2017) conference and exhibition which is being held 10-11 May at Glasgow’s Scottish Event Campus. Scotland’s Minister for Transport and the Islands is the keynote speaker; and 20-plus low carbon vehicles form the basis of conference and exhibition. SUMS 2017 is co-located with All-Energy, the UK’s renewable and low carbon energy exhibition and conference, and is sponsored by All-Energy’s headline sponsor,

Gentex Corporation, US-based manufacturer of automotive automatic-dimming rear-view mirrors and automotive electronics has expanded the coverage of its vehicle-integrated tolling solution to include toll roads in Canada and Mexico. The Gentex integrated toll module (ITM) utilises the TransCore universal toll module technology, which Gentex integrates into its electronic rear-view mirrors that automakers can integrate into new vehicles. It enables motorists to drive on all US toll roads, and now toll roads i

Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has implemented a new adaptive traffic control system at 32 intersections along Mercer Street between 3rd Ave W and I-5, which has been one of the city’s most congested corridors for over 40 years. Developed by the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory, the SCOOT (Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique) system coordinates the operation of the traffic signals in and around the corridor to help vehicles move more efficiently. SCOOT works in real-time to reduce delay

South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has approved testing of Samsung’s self-driving car on the country’s roads, according to the YonHap news agency. Samsung's self-driving car is a Hyundai vehicle equipped with cameras and sensors. Samsung plans to develop top-of-the-line sensors and computer modules backed by artificial intelligence and deep-learning technologies to improve cars' self-driving capabilities even in challenging weather conditions. In November 2016, the company bought U

US enforcement camera supplier American Traffic Solutions (ATS) has been awarded the exclusive contract to provide red-light, speed and school bus stop-arm safety cameras to members of the Houston-Galveston Area Council's (H-GAC) co-op program HGACBuy. The two-year contract been awarded under the Traffic Control, Enforcement and Signal Pre-emption Equipment Contract PE05-17. HGACBuy is active throughout the US and provides more than 6,000 members with 40 major categories of products and services from more t

Thales is to acquire the US big data analytics specialist Guavus, following several acquisitions in the fields of connectivity, mobility and cyber security. The acquisition opens broad opportunities for Thales in areas including predictive maintenance, cyber security, monitoring of critical infrastructures, network and telecommunication systems optimisation. Founded in 2006, Guavus has focused on the telecommunication and cable network operators’ market and has built a recognised industrial “big data” platf

Smartdriverclub, the connected car service which launched last summer by entrepreneur Penny Searles from her offices in Southampton and now being rolled out across used car dealer networks across the UK and direct to motorists, aims to give motorists more control over their motoring costs. Smartdriverclub works through a plug in device under the dashboard that connects the car to Smartdriverclub and gets it talking to identify emerging technical faults, show if the driver’s been in accident so that emergenc