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The City of San Diego has partnered with the US Marines to develop smart cities technologies such as drones - or unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) - and smart streetlights. The Californian city’s authorities will meet with the Marine Corps Installations Command (MCICOM) regularly to exchange technology ideas, review the status of ongoing projects and identify new areas of collaboration. The partners say they will also utilise working groups to review issues and develop actions plans relating to mobility,

Lime is building on a partnership with Google Maps which it says will allow riders to locate bikes and scooters in 80 cities worldwide. Last December, Lime launched an initial pilot with Google Maps in 13 cities such as Brisbane, Australia, and Seattle, Washington. Lime says the estimated costs and arrival times will be visible next to each vehicle to help users better gauge their transportation options. Riders can view nearby Lime bikes and scooters by tapping the transit icon in Google Maps. Onc

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are at the heart of a new exhibition at the London Science Museum. Driverless: Who is in control? opens on 12 June and looks at “how close we are to living in a world driven by thinking machines”. Continuing until October 2020, the show examines themes familiar to ITS professionals wrestling with the legal, ethical and logistical issues around the introduction of driverless cars to public roads. The museum says it will focus on “how much of this seemingly futuristic technolog

The ways in which authorities can meet the mobility needs of an ageing population and people with disabilities are to be addressed at ITS International’s MaaS Market Conference later this month. Beth Cocker, head of design and consultancy at ESP group subsidiary Viaqqio will describe MaaS-derived pilot projects in the UK West Midlands and in Scotland. Viaqqio has used elements of modular-designed MaaS software previously used in Dundee to address two important issues: the requirements of elderly drivers

Siemens Mobility has been chosen by the Department of Infrastructure in Northern Ireland to maintain and develop existing traffic management systems, which are mainly located in Belfast. The scope of the four-year contract includes the maintenance of local systems and the ongoing delivery of a dedicated IP-communications network, which connects 328 urban traffic control (UTC) sites to the central Siemens Mobility UTC and split cycle offset optimisation technique system. The deal is expected to migrate the

Transport operator Transdev and telecoms firm Ericsson have teamed up in France on an autonomous vehicle (AV) cybersecurity project. The companies have deployed high-speed private network LTE data communications to demonstrate secure mobility operations with AVs. The Rouen Normandy Autonomous Lab (RNAL) project is an on-demand shared and autonomous mobility service operating on open roads with four Renault ZOEs and, soon, with an i- Cristal Transdev Lohr shuttle. Franck Bouetard, head of Ericsson Franc

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is no longer just the stuff of children’s fiction, according to a Dutch company. Although sceptics suggest that flying cars will remain fantasy for many years to come, PAL-V has revealed the Liberty Pioneer, which it says is the world's first production model. At the Geneva International Motor Show, the company claimed that it is built for “those that want to be part of a unique group that writes history with us”. That ‘unique group’ will almost certainly need deep pockets: just

The city of Chula Vista in California is inviting researchers to propose projects, partnerships and pilot programmes on unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and autonomous vehicles (AVs). The city has issued a ‘request for expressions of interest’ highlighting that city-owned facilities are now available to businesses and organisations. Eric Crockett, economic development director, says: “Chula Vista is the only city in the nation with federal recognition for both AV and UAS testing and validation in a real

New York City bike-share service Citi Bike is to roll out 4,000 electric bicycles over the coming months and will add 13 stations and 2,500 more docks. The company is waiving the $2 per ride fee until 27 April for members. After this date, Citi Bike intends to offer free upgrades to members who dock e-bikes at locations which have yet to be revealed along the L train corridor. Non-members who purchase a single ride, day pass or three-day pass through the Citi Bike app will have to pay $2 per ride,

Volvo is trialling its 12m long autonomous electric bus on roads at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore ahead of an anticipated release onto public roads. The Volvo 7900 Electric single-decker bus can carry approximately 80 passengers and is the first of two buses being trialled at the NTU’s Centre of Excellence for Testing and Research of Autonomous vehicles (CETRAN) before being extended beyond the campus. CETRAN is staffed by NTU scientists and features a track which replicates var

Teleste is to help the Prince of Songkla University (PSU) in Thailand develop smart campus applications for transport and street lighting. PSU students and researchers will utilise Teleste’s advanced video management, Internet of Things and situational technologies to develop new services and applications. The project is being launched in support of the government’s Digital Thailand 4.0, an initiative which seeks to establish an economy based on digital computing technologies. Dr. Wasin Suwannarat, vi

Transit authorities could soon be seeing the benefits of contactless payments – without having to replace expensive turnstiles or terminals. That, at least, is what Visa is suggesting as the company launches its own secure access model (SAM), which is set to be put into service in Brazil. Metro Rio will be the first transit operator to launch contactless payments using the Visa SAM in late April. Visa and Planeta Informatica say the new technology “makes it easy for transit organisations and operators to

Ola Electric Mobility, a company backed by Indian ride-hailing platform Ola, has raised 4 billion rupees (£42m) in an initial funding round. Ola hopes to bring one million electric vehicles (EVs) to India by 2022 and is currently running pilots to deploy EVs and charging solutions for electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler services. Anand Shah, head of Ola Electric Mobility, says electric mobility requires chargers which can provide a reliable replacement for the petrol pump. “By making electric easy

After a century as the city of the automobile, Los Angeles is taking a major step on the road towards congestion charging. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LAMetro) is to explore road pricing and is also thinking about levying fees on ride-share companies for their part in creating gridlock. The moves are part of LAMetro’s ‘Re-imagining of Los Angeles County: Mobility, Equity and the Environment’ plan, which seeks policies to make transport sustainable in the famously-cong

Teledyne e2v has launched its Emerald 5M CMOS image sensor which it says provides higher resolution images of objects in motion with no distortion. The solution is expected to be suitable for machine vision, automated optical inspection and factory automation applications. Emerald 5M features a global shutter and MIPI CSI-2 interface which allows it to utilise image signal processors available for mobile applications. According to Teledyne e2v, the sensor comes with digital functionalities such as subsa

Antaira Technologies has launched its ARS-7234-AC-T industrial wireless unit which is designed for indoor wireless access applications. ARS-7234-AC-T allows users to position the wireless antenna in a better signal-broadcasting location for improved wireless coverage and signal strength, the company says. The wireless unit has been released alongside the ARX-7234-AC-PD-T and ARY-7234-AC-PD wireless units for outdoor wireless applications. According to Antaira, all three units are embedded with Qualco

Coup is to deploy 1,500 electric scooters across Berlin, Paris and Madrid – expanding its overall fleet to 5,000. The company says the European cities will each receive 500 e-scooters to meet increased demand. From 1 April, users will have access to a pricing structure in Berlin of €0.21 euros per minute for a minimum rental time of 10 minutes. Dr. Bernd Schmaul, chief executive officer of Coup, says: “We are taking this step in response to feedback from our users. There is increasing demand for lower

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has launched an electric mobility service called Glyd for commuters travelling to offices in Mumbai, India. Glyd comprises ten electric sedans called e-Veritos which are operating between corporate hubs at the Bandra Kurla Complex and the city’s western suburbs. M&M will gradually expand the service to crowdsource routes based on demand. M&M is deploying the service as part of an agreement with telecoms operator Vodafone-Idea and Cisco Systems. The fleet comes with conn

Applied Information has launched a product to detect when a traffic control device has been knocked down due to an accident, storm or vandalism – and call for help. The AI-900-032 Knockdown Detection Sensor uses battery power and wireless Internet of Things technology to send alerts to transportation system managers when it is in an ‘abnormal’ position. It is part of the Glance Smart City Supervisory System suite of products which allow cities to manage traffic and ITS assets under one web-based applicat

Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development and telematics company Carmera are conducting a ‘proof of concept’ project to develop camera-based automation of high definition (HD) maps for roads in Japan. Toyota says the project will help realise its automated mapping platform, an open software concept which supports automated driving by combining data gathered from vehicles of participating companies to generate HD maps. Cameras which use Toyota Safety Sense (TSS) components will be equipped to th