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Analyst comment from Frost & Sullivan indicates that the business consulting firm believes that Detroit OEMs are in trouble if Apple acquires Tesla and thinks that the rumours surrounding this potential acquisition have some fire behind them. According to automotive and transportation team leader Paraná Tharthiharan: "Apple has an arm that researches automated driving technology and Tesla is also interested in automated driving. Hence, the speculations carry more weight than mere rumours, as if about cel

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has inaugurated the new Metro Manila urban traffic signal system. Developed and equipped by Indra with the latest technology, the system’s core is Indra’s Hermes smart traffic management system. Installed in MMDA’s new command, control and communications centre, Metrobase v2.0, the system controls 85 key intersections and monitors traffic with the help of 25 video surveillance cameras installed at main points in the city. Hermes is capable of contr

The Vision Show, North America’s largest vision and imaging trade show and conference, will be held in Boston, Massachusetts at the Hynes Convention Center, 15-17 April 2014. Founded by AIA in 1996, The Vision Show provides vision users, system integrators, machine builders and OEMs with access to the latest vision and imaging technologies and applications from nearly over 100 leading manufacturers, distributors and suppliers from around the world.

Construction of the 26.4- kilometre Jinan-Changqing line of the Jinan-Liaocheng railway in China will begin during March 2014. The project includes nine stations and will cost US$2.18 billion in total, out of which US$202 million is scheduled to be invested in 2014. Meanwhile, two cross-river bridge construction projects will be kicked off in Jinan in May 2014. They include a dual-use bridge across the Yellow River that will cost US$262 million and the 13.5- kilometre Changqing Yellow River bridge, which

Brazil's civil aviation department SAC intends to define a construction model by April for a new US$503 million international airport in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. The 20 de Setembro (20 September) airport, an alternative to the state capital's Salgado Filho international airport, will be situated in Portão some 33km north of Porto Alegre. It is expected to boast two 3,200m x 45m runways, an international cargo terminal and an international passenger terminal with an operational capacity o

The first Social Innovation Forum taking place today in Istanbul, Turkey will focus on urban development and how new, ‘smart’ technologies can deliver innovations that answer society's challenges. Cities are projected to host almost 54 per cent of the world's population by next year, with the United Nations estimating that up to 80 per cent, or approximately 7.5 billion people, of the global population will live in urban areas by 2050. Urbanisation is leading to further stress on infrastructure – power d

Spanish ticketing provider Indra has been awarded two new ticketing contracts worth a total of US$7.3 million in South America. For the Sao Paulo subway in Brazil, the company will implement the access control and ticket validation systems for the eleven stations of the Line 5 extension. The systems will simultaneously process and manage magnetic tickets as well as the single ticket contactless cards and the metropolitan area cards, providing intermodality between the subway and buses in the urban and m

Init has partnered with US mobile ticketing provider Bytemark in the implementation of a ticketing project for Capital Metro in Austin, Texas. Bytemark’s new mobile ticketing app, CapMetro, incorporates a QR code and has been implemented across all its services. The QR code is read by Init ProxMobil2 readers installed on the new MetroRapid bus rapid transit (BRT) buses. Verification of QR-based tickets is certifiable by fare inspectors using hand-held devices or visually verified by vehicle operators.

A remote diagnostic system for variable message signs keeps Caltrans staff safer and makes them more efficient. District 12 of the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) maintains roads in Orange County including 292 route miles of freeway lanes and 240 directional miles of full-time high occupancy vehicle or carpool lanes. All of these lanes are controlled from the district’s transportation management centre (TMC) using a network of 58 variable message signs (VMS) positioned alongside or abo

Paraguay's public works and communications ministry (MOPC) plans to begin launching tenders for five of its biggest infrastructure projects next week. Among the projects is the rehabilitation of 73 kilometres of the Villeta-Alberdi highway, which will require an investment of US$46 million with financing coming from Latin American development bank CAF. CAF will also provide financing for the US$38 million rehabilitation of the Estigarribai-Infante Rivarola route, which will help connect Paraguay to th

According to Frost & Sullivan, the European Electronic Stability Control (ESC) market is expected to reach a market value of close to US$2.7 billion by 2020. Among the various original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), it is the upper tiers in the pyramid that attract maximum fitment rates, with the German big three claiming close to 100 per cent fitment across the eight segments they cater to. ESC is the most dominant enabler for active and passive safety technologies. Built into a car, it is crucial to a

In an effort to reduce the high number of accidents on India's first six-lane, high-speed, access controlled tolled expressway, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has decided to install a surveillance system involving speed cameras and digital message signs. According to a tender notice issued by the MSRDC, a total of 84 high-speed cameras will be installed at seven locations on the 93 kilometre road. The GPRS-based system will also record details such as the vehicle’s registrati

In order to promote the exchange of information and research on vehicle and road automation activities in Europe and beyond, the Vehicle and Road Automation (VRA) project has launched its website, together with other online tools to promote and expand the VRA community: The VRA wiki, www.vra-net.eu/wiki, is a user-edited shared resource for road vehicle automation activities around the world, containing details on around forty projects, with an abstract, contact point, website, sponsor, budget/funding an

Kapsch TrafficCom has been selected by North Tarrant Express (NTE) Mobility Partners Segments 3 LLC to provide the toll collection, intelligent transportation and network communication systems for the NTE extension project. The NTE extension is approximately ten miles long, and runs along I-35W north of the city of Fort Worth. Kapsch will deliver ten all-electronic toll zones, including dynamic sign equipment and road sensors that provide the data to enable dynamic toll charges based upon actual traffic

The third European Motorcyclists' Forum, taking place in Brussels on 5 and 6 March 2014 features discussions on the essential road safety issues affecting motorcyclists, as vulnerable road users. Leading safety and ITS experts will join a panel discussion, ‘Setting the Scene’ on 5 March, moderated by Bernd Lange, Member of the European Parliament (S&D) and co-chair of the Forum for Automobile and Society. Discussions continue on 6 March and include: Motorcycling and ITS, a US perspective - Shane McLaugh

CIHT welcomes the decision by Prime Minister David Cameron to launch a targeted review of the resilience of the transport network to extreme weather events, announced at the first meeting of the new Cabinet Committee on flooding. Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin will lead the targeted review which will look at the plans for all transport providers and will build on the work of the Quarmby Review in response to cold weather. The review will report by the summer. The recent extreme weather events

The London Borough of Redbridge is using the first unattended CCTV enforcement system for moving traffic offences in the UK. The pilot system, supplied by UK company Videalert, has been operational at four locations to monitor a range of moving traffic offences since November 2013. They include one restricted access, one yellow box junction and two banned turns. The system automates the detection and capture of the moving traffic offences and provides efficient post review and validation processing of

US-based Image Sensing Systems (ISS) has released its new intelligent licence plate recognition (LPR) camera, the Autoscope Ex-120 series. Developed in partnership with UK company CA Traffic and using their high performance camera technology, the Ex-120 will further enhance the ISS LPR offering and will provide a more complete solution for its customers. The Autoscope Ex-120 series is a fully integrated high-definition camera above-ground LPR camera powered by ISS’ field-proven license plate recognitio

The announcement by the United States Government announcement that it will begin taking steps to enable vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technology for light vehicles has been welcomed by ITS Australia, which said it is pivotal in taking road safety to the next level. This technology improves safety by allowing vehicles to ‘talk’ to each other and exchange basic safety data, such as speed, position and projected path, ten times per second. The US Department of Transportation (DOT) announcement inc

IDTechEx has launched a new browser-based electric vehicle market intelligence portal which provides companies with real-time global analysis of the total electric vehicles market for land, water and air. The portal is based on an active and continuous program of interviews, data gathering and analysis by PhD-level IDTechEx analysts. Subscription will help clients take a concise and focused approach to accelerate growth and capture opportunities with minimal risk from disruptive technologies. Electri