Search

Waymo has launched a driverless taxi service in Phoenix, Arizona, where riders will be charged for the journeys they take. In a blog post, CEO John Krafcik says the commercial self-driving service – called Waymo One - is available to early riders who have already been using Waymo’s technology. The company hopes to make the service available to more members of the public as it adds more vehicles and drives in more places, he writes. “Self-driving technology is new to many, so we’re proceeding carefully wi

Redvision has launched its outdoor Vega 2052 camera which it says is waterproof and resistant to vandalism. The company says the bullet camera does not require a junction box and is made from die-cast aluminium. It features a marine-grade plating as well as durable powder-coating. The camera’s cabling is routed through the housing and inside its walls or pedestal mounting brackets. Vega 2052 features a 2MP camera module with a Sony Exmor low light sensor.

Videalert’s CCTV cameras are being used by Blackburn with Darwin Council in north west England to tackle dangerous parking at a nearby red route. The cameras are located on the A678 at Copy Nook on the Furthergate Link Road, a route which was widened under the Pennine Reach Scheme to help improve the flow of bus traffic between Hyndburn, Blackburn and Darwen. Videalert says its low-cost Digital Video Platform will deliver this enforcement via a single lamp post-mounted processor which is equipped w

Ericsson’s Connected Vehicle Cloud (CVC) platform is being used by Volvo Cars to further develop its digital services. The five-year deal is expected to allow Volvo Cars to provide drivers with services such as automation, fleet management, telematics, navigation and infotainment. Ericsson says its platform takes account of legal, security and privacy obligations – such as compliance with the European Union general data protection regulation. Åsa Tamsons, head of business area technologies & new business

Marysville has become the latest urban area to join DriveOhio’s programme to test connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs). The suburb of Ohio state capital Columbus has plans to equip 1,200 vehicles with on-board units as part of the AV pilot created earlier this year by state governor John Kasich. Columbus itself has just been the recipient of a smart cities award for its ITS programmes and is among several cities to have signed up already to DriveOhio, along with Athens and Dublin. “Self-drivi

Feig Electronic has deployed more than 600 radio frequency identification (RFID) readers in India to allow drivers to pay for tolls without stopping at toll booths. The delivery is part of the National Highway Authority in India’s (NHAI) Fastag programme, an open road tolling method that relies on open ISO standard RFID technology. In a statement, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways says Fastag enabled vehicles can pass through dedicated lanes without stopping at toll plazas on national highways.

How do you expand a tunnel when it has reached its traffic limit? Build another tunnel in parallel to it. That, at least, is what Lyon did and opened the 1.7km Croix-Rousse dual-tunnel system in 2013. The smaller, new €283 million tunnel has become a symbol of Lyon’s intention to reinvent itself as one of France’s most innovative mobility centres, said Mathieu Hermen, head of operations at La Metropole de Lyon. Construction of the original two-lane tunnel under one of the city’s most densely populated arro

Lens manufacturer Tamron and visions system integrator Macq have signed a deal to produce a new camera. Tamron is providing the lens, while Belgium-based Macq is providing the housing and the electronics boards – and will sell the camera as its own product. Powered by artificial intelligence, the traffic sensor can be used for all kinds of applications, Macq says. These include: traffic monitoring, automatic make and model recognition, speed control, parking and automatic number plate recognition.

Israel-based cybersecurity firm SafeRide Technologies has joined the Genivi Alliance in a bid to secure connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs) from hacking threats. Genivi is a non-profit alliance focused on delivering open source, in-vehicle infotainment and connected software. Hilik Stein, chief technology officer at SafeRide, says the Vsentry cybersecurity software will be available on the Genivi development platform.

Keolis has launched an on-demand shared mobility service in Bordeaux, France, in a bid to reduce congestion and the impact on the local environment. The Ke’op service operates in a 50km2 area and provides connections to the public transport network of the metropole, including tram lines A and B. Jean-Pierre Farandou, executive chairman of Keolis, says the service should enable the company to meet the needs of transport authorities in areas where density does not justify the installation of major transpor

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) app Cowlines is to be rolled out across 62 North American cities following successful trials in Vancouver, Canada. The app, developed by Greenlines Technology, is expected to allow citizens to select the greenest, fastest and cheapest route by combining all modes of transportation. Riders can calculate the total cost of the trip, the length of the journey and its carbon footprint. Cowlines aggregates all transport options and measures the greenhouse gas emissions based on t

US company Affectiva plans to develop a joint automotive assistant which detects driver distraction and drowsiness and voices recommendations such as navigating to a coffee shop. The solution is intended to align its dialogue to a motorist’s emotional state based on facial and verbal expressions. The integrated solution will combine the Affectiva Automotive AI solution with UK-based Nuance Communications’ Dragon Drive platform. Affectiva Automotive AI measures facial expressions and emotions such as ange

Siemens Mobility will provide equipment for a 20km test track dedicated to the development of connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AV) in Düsseldorf, Germany. The company says its intelligent road infrastructure will reduce traffic congestion, enhance safety and provide more availability for mass transit. Siemens Mobility’s Road Side Units (RSU) will help provide near real-time information between vehicles and infrastructure at four intersections with a signal. In addition, an integrated SPAT (signal pha

Tattile says its intelligent camera Vega 1 is designed for single lane vehicle tracking, traffic-limited areas and priority lanes as well as congestion charging. Vega 1 comes with an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) engine and its local storage is expected to allow the solution to work independently in case the connectivity is interrupted. The single lane intelligent traffic system provides colour video streaming via standard RTSP protocol. According to Tattile, the camera is expected to offer a

Sixty years today, 2,300 drivers drove along an eight-mile section of road in England – the first motorway in the country. Opened in 1958, the Preston bypass – now part of the M6 - only had two lanes in each direction, with no safety barrier in the central reservation. There was also no technology – not even simple electronic signs. Highways England is pledging to celebrate the birthday by completing four upgrades on the M6 by spring 2022. The £900m project will add extra lanes and better technolog

Columbus, Ohio has been named City of the Year in the Smart Cities Dive website’s awards for its work on transit and electrification. The US city won the US Department of Transportation’s inaugural Smart City Challenge two years ago – and is rolling out a variety of smart city-related programmes. Smart Cities Dive said the city’s “biggest area of progress this year” has been its increased reliance on electric vehicles (EVs), including in its bus fleet and other government vehicles. City authoritie

Lyft, the ride-hailing firm which rivals Uber, has shown off the distinctive, pink-tyred bicycles which it is to use in its new bike-share programme. The company has completed its acquisition of US bike-share giant Motivate, which was announced in the summer, and will branch into two-wheel journeys soon. The company says this represents a “natural extension of Lyft’s vision to improve transportation access, sustainability and affordability”. Lyft says that 80% of all bike-share rides in the US were co

In the birthplace of Mozart, Colin Sowman found that delegates at the IBTTA’s inaugural World Tolling Summit were playing a variety of interesting tunes The first World Tolling Summit took place in Salzburg, Austria this autumn. Created and organised by the International Bridge Tolling and Turnpike Association (IBTTA), the event was supported by its European counterpart Asecap and hosted by Austria’s tolling authority, Asfinag. The transfer of views, experience and practice both ways across the Atl

Dynamic message signs are a proven means of getting information to drivers on the road – but they have their drawbacks. Robert Gordon looks at the possibilities of expanding DMS capability by bringing that information into the cars themselves Delivery of traffic information to motorists by dynamic message signs (DMS) has proven to be popular and is a principal tool for conveying information developed by the traffic management centre (TMC) to the public. There are, however, limitations in the use of ph