The US state of Virginia has radically changed which cars are eligible to use high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes.
October 28, 2019
Read time: 1 min
Most of the 16,000 vehicles which carry clean special fuel number plates can no longer use HOV lanes without three or more occupants (HOV 3+).
The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles says:
https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/vehicles/#cleanspecialfuel.asp plug-in and electric vehicles such as the Audi A3 e-tron and BMW i3 Sedan still qualify for the privilege.
Additionally, the 1747 Virginia Department of Transportation is to convert HOV lanes on Interstate 395 in northern Virginia to 8217 Express lanes in a move which will require all vehicles except motorcycles and buses to have a properly mounted E-ZPass or E-ZPass Flex. Vehicles bearing a clean special number plate can access the 8217 Express Lanes with a standard E-ZPass or can travel toll-free with an E-ZPass Flex if they meet the HOV 3+ requirement.
E-ZPass and E-ZPass Flex transponders are available at:
https://www.ezpassva.com and at https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/general/#mobileoperations.htmlDMV customer service centres. In addition, E-Z Pass On the Go may be obtained at DMV 2 Go mobile customer service centres.
Trade association ITS America has expressed disappointment that Toyota is pausing its Vehicle to Everything (V2X) deployment in the US.
The Japanese car maker sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) saying that a lack of activity from other manufacturers on V2X – plus uncertainty over the regulatory position – had led to the decision.
In a statement, ITS America said it was ‘disappointed’, adding: “We appreciate Toyota’s leadership and commitment to life-saving V2X technology.” Th
Navteq has launched a free online tool which calculates the potential savings delivered by using navigation systems. The service has been designed to cover both private and professional drivers and can be used, for example, by fleet managers to estimate the impact in relation to a group of vehicles or by car dealerships and PND manufacturers to demonstrate the savings to consumers at the point of sale.
Vehicles in Dubai will be fitted with digital number plates to inform emergency services of drivers involved in accidents – according to a report by the BBC. The cars will be equipped with smart plates with digital screens, GPS and transmitters for a trial starting next month.
Sultan Abdullah al-Marzouqi, head of the vehicle licensing department at Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), said that the plates will make life easier for drivers in Dubai. He added that the initiative will also work out
ARH is introducing a new version of its Carmen ANPR engine (used by many detection and enforcement applications worldwide), with the new software working on video streams rather than individual frame-grabbed images. Called Carmen Go, the technology is described as a camera-independent and auto adaptive plug and play system that extracts ANPR from any video stream – in fact up to eight video streams simultaneously on a single licence. The company said the new system runs on a pc and cameras can be connected
