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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

Serco has signed a two-year extension with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to continue operating and maintaining Dubai Metro until September 2021. HE Mattar Al Tayer, director general and chairman of the board of executive directors of the RTA, says: “Serco has delivered operational performance levels on the Dubai Metro with a high train service availability of 99.9% and a punctuality of 99.8%, achieving a record of 204 million journeys in 2018.” The £140m contract includes the operation

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

Getaround is launching its car-sharing platform in the US city of Atlanta, allowing residents to earn money by making their car available to rent. The company says the platform utilises cars already on the road and will therefore help to reduce traffic and congestion. Each car is equipped with Getaround Connect, a proprietary technology that allows renters to locate and unlock the car using the company’s app, removing the need to meet the owner in-person for a manual key exchange. Getaround’s safety

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

ChargeWheel has secured $1 million in funding to launch a mobile electric vehicle (EV) charging network in the San Francisco Bay Area. The network will be based on ChargeWheel’s mobile Energy Trailers, which don’t require a connection to the grid, and can therefore operate in any car park. The company says they offer a combined solar-powered generation and energy storage solution, and plans to deploy 100 in the Bay Area by the end of 2019. The units can simultaneously charge four EVs or up to 400 electric

Enforcement systems specialist Agendum has rebranded to Parkius as it prepares to expand its services to include smart city solutions. Agendum says users of its parking solution can then use smart data services for monitoring and predicting traffic and parking intensity or inspect traffic signs, street furniture or other objects in the public space. The company’s new website is www.parkius.io

Wellington City Council in New Zealand is to install 15 electric vehicle (EV) chargers in residential areas in a bid to lower transport emissions. The council is hoping that the move will enable people who do not have off-street parking and are unable to charge their vehicle at home to buy and operate an EV. Chris Calvi-Freeman, the council’s transport portfolio leader, says: “Road transport currently contributes 38% of the city’s emissions. We want to help Wellingtonians to make good, environmental

Lindsay, a manufacturer of infrastructure equipment, has partnered with Iteris to create smart workzones on roads across the US. The partnership supports the Federal Highways Administration’s Smarter Work Zone campaign to reduce traffic congestion and improve safety in workzones using ITS solutions. Research suggests there were 799 workzone-related fatalities in the US in 2017 – a 4.5% rise from the previous three-year average of 764. Linday says its Road Zipper moveable barrier system is designe

PTV Group is to model how transport networks can be integrated with future electricity network requirements as electric vehicle (EV) charge points are rolled out. It has joined a consortium, led by SP Energy Networks, which will look at ways of facilitating the increase in electricity demand which will be caused by the anticipated growth of EVs. “It is becoming increasingly important to understand the interaction between the take-up and demand for EVs and the capacity and supply within the electricity

PTV Group is to model how transport networks can be integrated with future electricity network requirements as electric vehicle (EV) charge points are rolled out. It has joined a consortium, led by SP Energy Networks, which will look at ways of facilitating the increase in electricity demand which will be caused by the anticipated growth of EVs. “It is becoming increasingly important to understand the interaction between the take-up and demand for EVs and the capacity and supply within the electricity

Aimsun is to work with Transport for London (TfL) to provide new transport modelling tools for the UK capital’s roads. The deal with London’s transit authority – announced at Traffex this week - will see Aimsun deliver a static (macroscopic) and dynamic (mesoscopic) model which covers everything within London’s orbital motorway, the M25, encompassing 53,000km of lanes. This includes all of the city’s cycle superhighways. Aimsun MD Gavin Jackman admitted the project was challenging, but says that it ha

Renault is trialling large-scale pilot schemes in Vehicle to Grid (V2G) charging for electric vehicles (EVs) in Europe. The company says a fleet of 15 Zoe vehicles with V2G charging will be introduced over the course of 2019 to help lay the groundwork for future standards. V2G, also called reversible charging, modulates the charging and discharging of EV batteries between the users’ needs and the grid’s supply of available electricity, the company adds. The pilot schemes are currently taking place in

The European Commission (EC) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) are launching a CEF transport blending facility, a funding instrument to support projects contributing to environmental sustainability and transport efficiency. With an initial budget of €200 million from the EU budget, the CEF (Connecting Europe Facility) will finance investments in the European Railway Traffic Management System and alternative fuels infrastructure. It will utilise funds from the EIB, National Promotional Banks and the p