Location Based Systems

Drivers in Poland can look forward to more options in receiving real-time traffic information in the future with the launch of CE-Traffic’s new Premium RDS-TMC service. According to Jiří Novobilský, CEO of traffic data provider CE-Traffic, the company developed the new system “to get more out of the technology that has been available for more than a decade so that navigation systems vendors can offer to their customers an easy to implement and affordable traffic service of a real value. Our Premium RDS-TMC

In an effort to help improve vehicle safety, the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has proposed a new standard that would capture valuable safety-related data in the seconds before and during a motor vehicle crash. The proposed rule would require automakers to install event data recorders (EDRs), devices that collect specific safety related data, in all light passenger vehicles beginning in September 2014. “By understanding how drivers respond in a cras

The latest report from independent technical consultancy SBD finds that, despite their huge potential to save lives, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) have so far failed to contribute significantly to the drop in road fatalities, due primarily to stubbornly low penetration rates over the last decade. However, this is poised to change, as costs begin to fall, consumer interest continues to grow, and most importantly, independent vehicle safety assessor EuroNCAP includes some ADAS applications within

Industry experts talk to Jason Barnes about the legislative situation of current and future in-vehicle systems. Articles about technology development can have a tendency to reference Moore’s Law with almost indecent regularity and haste but the fact remains that despite predictions of slow-down or plateauing, the pace remains unrelenting. That juxtaposes with a common tendency within the ITS industry: to concentrate on the technology and assume that much else – legislation, business cases and so on – will m

According to a new report from Frost and Sullivan, the European automotive navigation market will witness a shift towards integration and a continual trend towards low-cost connected navigation, which will become a commodity. With Smartphone replication technologies, Smartphone-based navigation inside cars will dominate the market, serving all car segments. The eCall in Europe and ERA-GLONASS in Russia, which mandate automated emergency response systems in vehicles, will lead to Europe becoming one of the b

According to Ertico, the future of traffic management on urban and inter-urban networks will rely on direct communication and interaction between vehicles and the infrastructure, using new technologies called cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS) that support real-time exchange of traffic data. This cooperation can enable a wide range of applications such as vehicle-sourced data collection, green light and speed advice, automated hazard detection, selective vehicle priority, dynamic city logisti

Historical traffic data provided by TomTom is being used by the local government in Spain’s Basque region to reduce road congestion at less cost. Old habits die hard. Photos from as far back as the 1930s show people counting cars by the roadside in order to provide congestion data to those running road networks. Today, such techniques are still used, albeit augmented by a range of automation technologies such as inductive loops, infra-red sensors and number plate recognition. Even with these advances, howe

The European Commission has adopted a measure to ensure that by 2015 vehicles can call emergency services in the event of a crash. The Commission wants the life-saving eCall system to be fitted to all new models of cars and light vehicles from 2015. eCall automatically dials Europe's single emergency number 112 in the event of a serious accident and communicates the vehicle's location to the emergency services. According to some estimates, eCall could speed emergency response times by 40per cent in urban ar

Jason Barnes considers the social and ethical ramifications of using in-vehicle safety technologies to fulfil enforcement functions. Although policy documents often imply close correlation between enforcement, compliance and safety – in part, as a counter to accusations that enforcement is rather more concerned with revenue generation – there is a noticeable reluctance among policy makers and auto manufacturers to exploit in-vehicle safety systems for enforcement applications. From a technical perspective t

Rand McNally has announced a new software release for its IntelliRoute TND 510 truck GPS unit that includes updated map data, additional trucking points of interest, and many of the new features from the new TND 720 that was released in June. The software upgrade includes a wide range of new information and features, including fully updated road data with truck-specific information; fully updated data on truck stops and weigh stations; fuel logs; routes around seasonal road conditions, hazard, tolls or cons