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

  • Cisco, NXP invest in Cohda Wireless to enable the connected car
    January 7, 2013
    In a partnership that they say will advance intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and car-to-X communications, US-headquartered IT provider Cisco and Dutch semiconductor supplier NXP Semiconductors are to invest in wireless communications specialist Cohda Wireless. The three companies will apply their collective expertise and technologies to help automotive OEMs, suppliers, enterprises and consumers to connect vehicles with ITS infrastructure. This will be spearheaded by producing the first automotive-q
  • Intelligent intersection control
    April 12, 2013
    Intelligent intersection control systems have a growing role to play in making urban traffic more efficient. Robin Meczes reports. The idea of every traffic light turning green as you approach it has long been a dream for many an urban driver – and none more so than those driving heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), which are slow and difficult to bring to a halt and then accelerate back to normal travel speed. But that dream has become a reality for some drivers in a small number of cities around Europe in the las
  • Michigan Mobility Wallet aims to simplify transit ridership & payments
    March 30, 2023
    Focus will be on equity for Feonix, Ecolane, RTA and their partners in the US state
  • Smart transportation market forecasts
    April 25, 2014
    Research and Markets’ latest report, Smart Transportation Market - Global Advances, Forecasts and Analysis (2014 - 2019), indicates that the global smart transportation market is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 18.3 per cent from 2014 to 2019. Congestion, hyper-urbanisation and globalisation, need of sustainable solutions and emergence of cloud based services are the major drivers for this market.