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Ride-share company Via has expanded its operating zone in Chicago by offering a mobility service to and from 65 Chicago Transit Authority and Metra stations for $2.50. This rate is available to riders booking trips up to two miles within the zone, which includes areas such as Austin, Garfield and South Deering. Alex Lavoie, US general manager of Via, says the service will “provide greater access across the entire city for residents, workers and visitors in these communities.” Using the Via app, passenge

Mobileye has selected telecoms giant Orange to provide Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity for a solution which it claims will make roads safer. The company, part of Intel, says the Mobileye 8 Connect provides drivers with collision avoidance technology based on their behaviour, environmental data and real-time alert data such as recognising pedestrians in low light. The solution - which sees the road ahead through a camera lens - is expected to offer municipalities and utilities data to plan for smart

DiDi Chuxing has launched a robo-taxi pilot in Shanghai which it says will allow passengers to hail vehicles from its app. DiDi is to deploy 30 autonomous vehicles (AVs) operating at SAE Level 4 in the Jiading District of Shanghai. Initially, the programme will comprise AVs and manually-driven vehicles. The company showcased the robo-taxi service on a closed tract at Shanghai’s World Artificial Intelligence Conference. The Shanghai government awarded DiDi permits to test its AV fleet last month.

Telephone company Cincinnati Bell is partnering with the Oregon District Business Association to install a smart city solution to support law enforcement safety initiatives. The partners will install cameras throughout the Oregon District - a neighbourhood in Dayton, Ohio - including its car parks and alleyways. Both parties will install fibre to provide free public Wi-Fi and engagement software to support local businesses. Public Wi-Fi will extend on 5th Street from Wayne Avenue to Patterson Boulev

The UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) says that future road safety will require innovation rather than repeating past measures. Speaking at the UK Department for Transport (DfT)’s International Road Safety Conference, TRL’s academy director Richard Cuerden discussed why a paradigm shift is needed in the transport sector’s approach to road safety interventions to ensure road casualties are reduced significantly by 2030. The number of deaths on the world’s roads remains unacceptably high, with an e

PBSC Urban Solutions is adding 120 electric bikes to Bixi Montréal’s fleet in a pilot project taking place in the Canadian province until 15 November. PBSC says its E-Fit’s central motor propels riders up to 32km/h on a full charge and has an autonomy range of up to 70km. Bixi’s fleet of trucks and warehouse in Montréal will be used to recharge the E-Fit batteries. The E-Fit electric pedal-assist bikes can be docked at any station in the network and are available to Bixi members and casual riders via th

Ride-sharing company Bolt has joined forces with the University of Tartu (UT) in Estonia to develop technology for SAE Level 4 autonomous vehicles (AV). The partners intend to carry out AV pilots in urban areas and integrate AVs onto Bolt’s on-demand transportation platform by 2026. Jevgeni Kabanov, chief product officer at Bolt - formerly Taxify - says: “Rather than developing our own vehicle, the goal of this project is to build our self-driving technology with a focus on software and maps, on top of ex

Volocopter has trialled an air taxi at the Helsinki International Airport in Finland, integrating into the air traffic management (ATM) and unmanned aircraft traffic management (UTM) system. Within the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) Programme, this demonstration is the final part of the Gulf of Finland (GOF) U-Space project showing how ATM and UTM systems enable urban air mobility (UAM). Maria Tamm, project coordinator from Estonian Air Navigation Services, says rules for using very low-level ai

Zenuity has joined forces with CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, to develop fast machine learning for autonomous vehicles (AVs). Zenuity - an autonomous driving software company - is hoping the collaboration will aid the development of AVs that can make decisions and predictions more quickly, thereby avoiding accidents. The partners will also aim to reduce the runtime and memory footprint of deep learning algorithms while minimising energy consumption and cost. They will use CERN’s

Spanish technology company GMV is to develop a satellite-based positioning system for BMW’s next generation of autonomous vehicles (AVs). The company says its software determines the vehicle’s position using algorithms modified to meet BMW’s safety requirements. GMV is also providing a global navigation satellite system correction service to be run in a secure infrastructure using data from a global network of monitoring stations.

Tech giants Vodafone and IBM have signed an eight-year deal to equip National Express coaches with cloud and digital services to improve safety. Vodafone Business and IBM joined forces in January to offer customers access to technologies for integrating multiple clouds. Debbie O’Shea, group chief information officer for National Express, says: “This partnership enables us to move to a cloud environment giving us a future-proofed platform with increased flexibility that will better support our business.”

ST Engineering is operating a free on-demand autonomous vehicle shuttle service in Sentosa

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is to launch a smart cities technology pilot in the US city of St. Louis, Missouri. DHS S&T will work with the city and the Open Geospatial Consortium to design and test smart city interoperability reference architecture (SCIRA) as a framework that integrates Internet of Things sensors for public safety applications. Lyda Krewson, mayor of St. Louis, says: “Community level application of existing technologies is essential

Google is to pair transit directions with bike- and ride-share options within Google Maps in a bid to improve first and last mile journeys. Google says users will be able to enter their destination in the search box, tap ‘Directions’ to see routes that feature ride-share and cycling options paired with transit directions. For ride-sharing, individuals can view information on how much the ride will cost, waiting time, traffic lights and an option to choose their favourite provider. Cyclists will be able

Transport for London (TfL) has chosen IT company Sopra Steria to develop software to help tackle congestion and road danger in the UK capital. TfL is responsible for managing 580km of London’s roads, as well as managing a range of assets including 6,000 traffic lights, its tunnels and some bridges. The partners will seek to develop a control centre system that provides a single view of everything happening on the road network. Glynn Barton, TfL's director of network management, says the partnership wi

Waymo is making its Waymo Open Dataset for autonomous vehicles (AVs) available to the research community for free. Waymo is hoping the data will help researchers make advances in 2D and 3D perception and progress in areas such as domain adaptation and behaviour prediction. The company says each segment of driving data captures 20 seconds of continuous driving, allowing researchers to develop models to track and predict the behaviour of other road users. This dataset covers dense and suburban environmen

Indra and engineering firm Eléctricas de Medellín Ingeniería y Servicios has commissioned a control centre and a back-up centre to supervise a 9km tunnel in Columbia. Both centres will monitor the safety and revenue collection systems of the Túnel de Oriente, which serves as a transport link between the city of Medellín and José María Córdoba airport. It is part of Concesión Túnel Aburrá Oriente, a 24km road corridor that Indra is now managing via its Mova solutions. Indra says its toll solution Mova C

Via is to launch a routing system for school buses which it claims will reduce transportation costs for the New York City (NYC) Department of Education (DoE). The ‘Via for Schools’ system will allow users to track school buses as well as receive information on unexpected changes such as real-time bus locations, route changes and vehicle delays. Richard A. Carranza, schools chancellor at NYC DoE, says: “Through our partnership with Via, we’ll soon have a state-of-the-art app for families to track buse

The UK government plans to open up roadwork data to tech companies with the aim of reducing traffic jams. The Department of Transport (DfT) says companies could potentially develop navigation apps powered by artificial intelligence that can warn drivers up to months in advance of planned disruption to routes and offer alternatives. George Freeman, minister for the future of transport, says the announcement will “help open up data, reducing congestion, pollution and frustration for road users”. The