News

Leading traffic information software provider Gewi has announced that the popular TIC product now is available as "TIC as a data service". The company says this will allow its customers to be able to test their TPEG over HTTP enabled navigation devices.

In the context of a wider relationship between Safran and Finmeccanica, Morpho (Safran group) and Selex Elsag (Finmeccanica Group) have signed a “Partnership Framework Agreement” for development of commercial and industrial operations in the field of road enforcement and safety equipment which could lead to a joint venture.

According to the Arval, the car rental division of French banking group, BNP Paribas, the interest of Spanish companies in adding electric vehicles to their fleet has dropped 90 per cent in the past year, with just two per cent of companies expecting to opt for this type of vehicle before 2014. In 2010, 21 per cent said they would chose them. Hybrid cars also lost favour, with a 47 per cent drop in the number of companies intending to use them in their fleet from 30 per cent in 2010 to 16 per cent currently

ITS Australia president Dr Norm Pidgeon has described the forthcoming ITS 2011 Summit, being held from 20-22 September at the Gold Coast, as ITS Australia’s most ambitious project to date. Like the inaugural Summit in 2009, the ITS 2011 Summit will be a roll-up the sleeves working session with the theme Strategy into Action. It will bring together all ITS stakeholders, including entrepreneurs, manufacturers and users, including vehicle and component manufacturers, transport businesses and government bodies

Tests of a new drug testing kit are now being carried out by the police. A number of parallel trials are being carried out of the kits, which can detect a number of illegal drugs. The kits are manufactured in the UK and are already supplied to police forces in Australia and Italy, where they have been used successfully for some time. Should the UK trials prove successful the kits will be introduced across the country during early 2012.

The European Commission has published new statistics showing that EU road fatalities decreased by 11 per cent in 2010. However, country by country statistics show that the number of deaths still varies greatly across the EU. Most countries achieved double-digit reductions in the number of road deaths over the past year, including Luxembourg (33%), Malta (29%) Sweden (26%) and Slovakia (26%).

Point Grey, a specialist in advanced digital camera products, and AMD, the global semiconductor company, have jointly demonstrated uncompressed streaming HD video across USB 3.0 during AMD’s A-Series APU official launch event.

Google has released Google Maps 5.7 for Android and added Transit Navigation (Beta), which currently provides over 12 billion miles of GPS-guided driving and walking directions per year. According to the company GPS turn-by-turn (or in this case, stop-by-stop) navigation is now available for public transit directions in 400+ cities around the globe.

Azure Dynamics Corporation, a specialist in the development and production of hybrid electric and electric components and powertrain systems for commercial vehicles, has announced an agreement with Ford Motor Company whereby Azure will integrate its proprietary plug-in hybrid (PHEV) technology into the Ford F-Series Super Duty product line.

UK transport secretary Philip Hammond yesterday cut the ribbon at the Hindhead twin bore tunnel in Surrey, signifying the end of a US$605 million, 1.8 km-long bypass of Hindhead village on the A3 between London and Portsmouth. The new tunnels will be used by 30,000 vehicles/day.

The next wave of telematics systems in China will be based on smartphone connectivity, and will harness the power of 3G networks, according to the latest report from Strategy Analytics, “China Domestic OEM Telematics Solutions - Chang'an In Call & Its Local Counterparts.”

TÜV Rheinland, a global specialist in independent testing, inspection, certification, and consulting services, has announced Suzanne Murtha’s appointment as business development manager for its ITS group. In her new role, Murtha will develop and manage TÜV Rheinland’s North American consulting, assessment, analysis, verification, validation, testing and certification of ITS components and systems.

Earlier this year, General Motors signed a definitive agreement with ABB Group to identify joint research and development projects that would reuse Chevrolet Volt battery systems, which will have up to 70 per cent of life remaining after their automotive use is exhausted. Recent research conducted by GM predicts that secondary use of 33 Volt batteries will have enough storage capacity to power up to 50 homes for about four hours during a power cut.

Agnik, a US-based data analytics company for distributed, mobile and embedded environments, has selected Kore Telematics to power its MineDrive usage-based automobile insurance application. This provides insurance carriers with detailed intelligence about driver and automobile performance, enabling more accurate adjustment of their offerings.