News

Cobra and Mercedes-Benz Trucks have announced the launch of 'Mercedes-Benz Tracking System' which is being claimed as the first pan-European stolen vehicle tracking and location monitoring system for HGVs. The covertly fitted device uses GPS/GPRS/GSM technology to provide web-based on-demand pinpoint location and stolen vehicle tracking for Actros, Axor and Atego trucks. It is the only system tested and approved by Mercedes-Benz Trucks and backed-up by a one-year manufacturer warranty.

Teledata World Services has signed a letter of intent to acquire all of the equity of Superior Traffic Controls, a developer and manufacturer of roadside safety and incident management products. The transaction will result in the majority shareholders of Superior becoming the majority shareholders of the Teledata and comes at the conclusion of a two-year search for a new business opportunity Teledata could merge with or acquire.

South Africa-headquartered Nortech International, in conjunction with Beijing Navigator Technologies, has announced the conclusion of a successful trial of high accuracy vehicle classification for tolling on the Hebei Shi-huang Expressway in Hebei Province of China.

Econolite and Image Sensing Systems (ISS) have announced the introduction of Autoscope Encore, the next generation of Autoscope multitasking video solutions for the most demanding intelligent transportation systems (ITS).

Inrix has announced partnerships with Viasuisse, a leading provider of traffic information in Switzerland and Targa Infomobility and Infoblu, a leading provider of traffic information in Italy.

ITS America has announced that on Monday it will hold a key discussion event concerning intelligent transportation and its role in helping to solve America’s infrastructure crisis with national leaders including Ursula Burns, chairman and CEO of Xerox; Chris Vein, deputy White House chief technology officer; Robert Brown, Ford Motor Company’s VP of sustainability, environment and safety engineering; and Martin Thall, Verizon’s VP - telematics. This is just one of numerous sessions examining ways to bring in

VidSys, a leading provider of Physical Security Information Management (PSIM) software that allows organisations to resolve business and security situations in real time, has opened offices in Europe and the Middle East.

New consumer research conducted by Johnson Controls claims that 97 per cent of Americans are ready for new start-stop technology that improves the fuel economy of their vehicle. The research was conducted to gain understanding of how consumers view fuel-saving power train technologies based on attributes such as purchase price, fuel economy, annual fuel cost and performance. Focus groups across US major metropolitan areas, along with 1,200 survey respondents, provided feedback on efficient vehicle technolog

Iteris has been awarded a US$1.4 million ITS integration services contract from the city of Oxnard, in California, for deployment of the city’s ITS Master Plan. Since 2006, the company has been providing ITS services to Oxnard which is the 19th most populous city in California and the most populous in Ventura County. The six-year partnership began with the development of the city’s ITS Master Plan, followed by detailed design of the citywide ITS, and now its integration and deployment.

Installation of automatic braking systems in buses is being considered by Japan’s Transport Ministry. The advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) will be activated upon the detection of the risk of a crash and is one of a number of high-tech safety advancements being reviewed by the ministry to be mandated for buses.

The Mineta Transportation Institute has released its newest peer-reviewed research report, A Framework for Developing and Integrating Effective Routing Strategies within the Emergency Management Decision-Support System. It describes the modelling, calibration, and validation of a multi-modal traffic-flow simulation of the San Jose, California, downtown network. It also examines various evacuation scenarios and first-responder routings to assess strategies that would be effective during a no-notice disaster.

Pitney Bowes Business Insight has announced that Balfour Beatty WorkPlace has chosen Confirm OnDemand – PBBI’s on-demand-based infrastructure asset maintenance and management system – to support its US$158 million Highways Services Partnership with Southampton City Council in the UK. Southampton City Council had previously been using Confirm as an on-premise application to manage its highways maintenance programme. Through integration with PBBI’s MapInfo Professional location intelligence GIS software, the

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (Metro) has retired the last diesel bus in its fleet, becoming the world's first major transit agency to operate only clean fuel buses - nearly 100 per cent of which operate on compressed natural gas (CNG). According to Metro, compared with diesel buses, its CNG fleet reduces cancer-causing particulate matter by more than 80 per cent. And, because of the switch from diesel to CNG, Metro avoids emitting nearly 300,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per da

Last week at the Qatar Motor Show saw the world debut of Volkswagen’s XL1, a diesel-electric hybrid two-seater that can do 313mpg (0.9 l/100 km) and an announcement that the vehicle will enter limited production for the UK and German markets in 2013. If it proves popular, VW says it plans to increase production and sell in other countries.