Skip to main content

Xerox and University of Michigan partner on urban mobility

Xerox is to form a three-year partnership with the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) to help shape the future of urban mobility across the country. The ultimate goal is to demonstrate how emerging automotive information-based systems and communications capabilities enable improved transaction-based business processes.
May 8, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
4186 Xerox is to form a three-year partnership with the 5647 University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) to help shape the future of urban mobility across the country. The ultimate goal is to demonstrate how emerging automotive information-based systems and communications capabilities enable improved transaction-based business processes.

In collaboration with the 324 US Department of Transportation (USDOT), MTC will develop a 30-acre simulated city called the Mobility Transformation Facility (MTF), which will be the largest on-road vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure test environment in the world.

Xerox will support the MTC’s research through its proprietary transportation offerings and data analytic capabilities, focusing on: integration of mobile device and automotive information-based systems for transaction management solutions, such as tolling and smart parking; integration of smart parking applications into automotive information-based systems through the Xerox Merge platform; integration and analysis of data provided by the USDOT’s Safety Pilot Model Deployment program to identify new opportunities in areas such as fleet performance monitoring, driver behaviour, road infrastructure quality and vehicle health and diagnostics; MTC’s independent testing and assessment of Xerox offerings’ performance, including Xerox’s recently announced vehicle passenger detection system, an HOV/HOT lane compliance test system that uses video analytics to identify the number of occupants in a vehicle.

Construction of the MTF is slated for completion by September 2014. UMTRI plans to establish a network of more than 20,000 connected and automated vehicles on the streets of south-eastern Michigan by 2021.

“Today, with the growing trend of urbanisation, the transportation systems that move people, goods and services around the world pose significant environmental, economic and social challenges,” said David Amoriell, vice president and chief operating officer, Government and Transportation Sector, Xerox. “The research conducted and data collected by Xerox and UMTRI will be critical in the worldwide reduction of vehicle collisions, energy consumption and carbon emissions, while improving overall urban mobility and quality of life.”

Related Content

  • Full electric vehicle shipments to exceed 2 million by 2020
    October 11, 2013
    According to ABI Research, the number of full electric vehicles (EV) shipping yearly will increase from 150,000 in 2013 to 2.36 million in 2020, representing a CAGR of 48 per cent. Asia-Pacific will exhibit the strongest growth, driven by mounting pollution issues in its many megacities; however, true mass-market uptake will only start happening in the next decade.
  • Top 5 trends in vision technology
    June 24, 2021
    Artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms are among the major trends having an impact on road traffic enforcement, according to leading companies in the vision sector
  • Rise of smart cities spawns market for smart vehicle technology in the US
    November 15, 2013
    According to recent research by Frost & Sullivan, there is a palpable reorientation of purchasing habits among American citizens as the country continues its march toward urbanism. In the future, 85 percent of the country’s population is anticipated to live in urban areas, while North America could see the emergence of three mega cities, eleven mega regions, and seven smart cities by 2025. One of the biggest gainers of this massive-scale urbanisation is the automotive industry, particularly autonomous drivi
  • Automatic signal control to prevent emergency vehicle collisions?
    March 14, 2012
    Field trials under way in Arizona promise eradication of accidents between emergency vehicles at intersections – as part of a national focus on ‘intelligent signal’ infrastructure. Collisions between police cars, ambulances and fire crews as they reach intersections at the same time, with equal priority given by all signals set on red, are as serious as they sound absurd. For emergency teams and those in need of their help, the consequences are dire. The solution could come from application of connected veh