Skip to main content

Ertico reaches for stars with ESA

Agreement with European Space Agency will look at innovative tech for positioning
By Adam Hill September 2, 2022 Read time: 2 mins
Both organisations can develop use cases to demonstrate 'the value of connectivity and geo-positioning through satellite communication' (© Scyther5 | Dreamstime.com)

Ertico – ITS Europe has signed a Memorandum of Intent (MoI) with the European Space Agency (ESA) to explore the use of innovative tech in mobility.

The organisations say the collaboration "will explore space technology and services to improve the safety and reliability of assisted and automated vehicles on European roads and promote innovation in the sector".

Joost Vantomme, Ertico CEO, said the agreement was "another example of how we broaden and build bridges in the entire ecosystem".

"Both our organisations have the potential to enable use cases that truly demonstrate the value of connectivity and geo-positioning through satellite communication,” he added.

The partners will exchange knowledge and expertise to advance the future of automated and sustainable mobility and improve the reliability of data.

Javier Benedicto, ESA’s director of navigation, says: “Ertico’s comprehensive roadmap defines a future where vehicles communicate with each other, the roads they drive on and other infrastructure – but also highlights the fundamental need for ubiquitous, precise, and reliable positioning, navigation and timing [PNT] information."

He says the potential for synergy with ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme (Navisp) "is evident and enormous".

Navisp looks at new ways to provide reliable PNT information, which is fundamental to developing automated vehicles, as well as future traffic management.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Parsons teams up with Microsoft
    March 9, 2023
    Advanced traffic management will be among areas covered by new partnership
  • Amsterdam Drone Week 2023: prep for take-off
    February 6, 2023
    The fifth edition of the event takes place at RAI Amsterdam from 21-23 March 2023
  • European Mobility-as-a-Service Alliance launched
    October 6, 2015
    Twenty European organisations have joined forces to establish the first Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Alliance. This new initiative will work towards a truly European and common approach to MaaS through public and private stakeholder cooperation, providing the basis for the economy of scale needed for a successful implementation in Europe. The Alliance will be officially launched in the Finnish Pavilion (C37) at the ITS World Congress in Bordeaux on 6 October at 1300. The key concept behind MaaS is to
  • Foundation funds research for informed campaigning
    April 29, 2015
    ITS International talks to Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the transport research and lobbying organisation, the RAC Foundation. It is through the eyes of an economist that Professor Stephen Glaister, emeritus professor of transport and infrastructure at Imperial College London and director of the RAC Foundation, views current and future transport problems. Having spent 30 years at the London School of Economics and another 10 at Imperial, the move to the RAC Foundation was a radical departure from