Location Based Systems

During a recent debate on connected vehicles, the International Road Transport Union (IRU) highlighted that intelligent transport systems (ITS) are widely used within the road transport sector to improve efficiency, especially for fleet management, but also in fuel reduction and locating safe and secure parking. While new developments are also seeing communication between vehicles and road infrastructure, resulting in quicker, safer and more fuel efficient journeys, the IRU stressed the need for common s

A push by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to use technology to reduce traffic fatalities aims to keep drunk drivers off the roads by using in-vehicle technology that immobilises their cars. They are pushing for systems that prevent drivers from starting their cars, help cars avoid collisions and prevent vehicles from starting if the occupants don’t wear seat belts. "Ninety per cent of all crashes have an element of human error," NHTSA administrator David Strickland said. "We really

TomTom has announced a partnership with UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. TomTom’s global Traffic Index data will be used by UN-Habitat and its stakeholders around the world to make strategic decisions when tackling urban congestion. Recently TomTom released the sixth edition of its Traffic Index which revealed a clear pattern of increased congestion. Commuters around the world are spending on average eight working days stuck in traffic. This shows that traditional responses li

A new app that connects a vehicle’s systems to the internet opens up a range of possibilities as Jon Masters discovers. Sometimes the most straightforward or simple of ideas can be the most significant. So it seems with the latest development from Hungarian navigation software supplier NNG. The company’s software features in-vehicle infotainment systems and has launched NavFusion – which connects a vehicles’ sat nav programs to smartphones. NavFusion is being incorporated into NNG’s iGO navigation s

The implementation of in-vehicle systems will require multilateral cooperation, as Honda’s Sue Bai explains to Colin Sowman. Vehicle manufacturers will shape the future direction of in-vehicle ITS systems, but they can’t do it on their own. So to find out what they see on the horizon, and the obstacles they face, ITS International spoke to Sue Bai, principal engineer in the Automobile Technology Research Department with Honda R&D Americas. Not only does she play an important role in Honda’s US-based ITS

Do Advanced Driver Assistance Systems represent a positive step forward for safety, or something of a safety risk? Jason Barnes discusses the issue with leading industry figures. Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are already common. Anti-lock brakes or electronic stability control are well understood and are either fitted as standard or frequently requested by new vehicle buyers. More advanced ADAS features are appearing on many top-end vehicles and the trickle-down has already started. Adaptive

China’s fifth annual Future Challenge earlier this month pitted eleven unmanned intelligent vehicles against each other on a course designed to test their capabilities in suburban and urban road tests, over a 23-kilometre course. All of the first eight cars to finish were equipped with Velodyne’s 3D Lidar vision technology which provides active sensing for crash avoidance, driving automation and mobile road survey and mapping. Velodyne HDL-64E and HDL-32E sensors deliver 360-degree views of the car’s env

Inrix XD Incidents is a breakthrough in traffic intelligence, according to the company, which says it reports more accidents, road closures and other incidents across significantly more roads in more countries and at much greater speed than ever before. Inrix XD Incidents detects accidents and road closures faster by automatically correlating real-time traffic flow data with information from nearly 400 public and private sources including media partners, departments of transportation, emergency responder

The European Parliament has approved US$9.5 billion in funding to further develop and complete Europe's satellite navigation programs, including the Galileo and EGNOS projects. The funding will cover the projects from 2014 to 2020 and will be spent on completion of the satellite navigation infrastructure as well as the development of fundamental components such as Galileo-enabled chipsets or receivers in smartphones.

The latest analysis by ABI research expects global V2V penetration in new cars to increase from 10.9 per cent in 2018 to 69 per cent in 2027. ABI Research vice-president and practice director Dominique Bonte comments: “Huge interest in autonomous driving across the automotive ecosystem firmly positions V2X technology and applications as a key component of driverless car systems. However, some OEMs are claiming some forms of (semi)-autonomous driving can be achieved by just using in-vehicle ADAS-sensors.