Location Based Systems

In a bid to help its 500,000 subscribers avoid traffic, Shanghai OnStar, the Chinese joint venture between General Motors, SAIC, and Shanghai GM, has announced the launch of a new feature. Aptly named Avoid Traffic, the service is an improvement to turn-by-turn navigation that utilises real-time traffic information to route users around traffic congestion via OnStar’s familiar turn-by-turn voice commands.

SQLstream’s Ronnie Beggs discusses with Jason Barnes the potential and pitfalls of using social media for traffic monitoring and management. cataclysmic events such as hurricanes and tsunami have challenged perceptions of what constitutes robust traffic management infrastructure in recent times. Presumptions that only fixed systems could offer high levels of unbroken service, accuracy and communication bandwidth, have been taught some hard lessons by nature. In many respects wireless systems now represent t

Australia’s National Transport Commission (NTC) wants cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS) technology to be considered in the country. In a recently-released discussion paper, the NTC states the technology, which allows vehicles and other parts of the road network to communicate, could save 300 lives on the nation’s roads each year. The paper discusses the technology that is currently being trialled in the US and Europe by auto manufacturers and governments to allow drivers to plan their trips

According to the latest report by independent technical consultancy SBD, End User Survey for Consumer Needs in South East Asia, 85 per cent of south-east Asian drivers already use some form of navigation each month. SBD surveyed 2,400 drivers in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand and implemented its consumer profiling tool to find out what connected services these drivers likely to need. South-east Asia has long been an afterthought market for the telematics industry, largely due to its poor road infrastruct

TraficOK, a joint development by Romanian software company AROBS Transilvania Software, specialising in customised automotive solutions, and be-mobile, Belgian provider of traffic and mobility information, is, according to both companies, a fully comprehensive traffic portal that provides precise traffic and mobility information the Romanian public accurate and. TraficOK provides detailed and up to the minute live traffic information, sourced from an extensive fleet and uniquely for the Romanian market, enh

Twelve European carmakers have agreed to step up cooperation to bring car-to-car communication to European roads through the use of a common deployment strategy. The companies, which cooperate in the Car 2 Car Communication Consortium, have said they want to have cooperative systems in place from 2015, taking account of EU technical specifications for message formats, security requirements and other requirements. According to the car manufacturers, “It is of great importance that all equipped vehicles are s

UK-headquartered Paragon Software Systems has developed a low bridge avoidance mapping option for all UK versions of its routing and scheduling optimisation software. The optional Navteq mapping functionality eliminates the need to enter bridge height data manually into Paragon, simplifying and streamlining the creation of cost-effective, feasible transport plans that enable high vehicles to avoid low bridges on British roads. Users can enter their own bridge height data if necessary, but with this new opti

UK gas infrastructure specialist Forefront Utilities has invested in TomTom fleet management to improve customer service and fuel efficiency. The company has deployed a combined tracking and fuel management system to provide greater visibility of its mobile workforce and reduce costs across its 164-strong vehicle fleet. TomTom’s Webfleet online fleet management system provides managers with full visibility of a company’s mobile workforce, with live HD Traffic information enabling them to route drivers to c

Restarting city transportation systems following a natural disaster can take time. The impact of a storm cannot be predicted, but transportation systems and fleets of vehicles with embedded intelligence can provide the knowledge needed to get up and running faster. Machine to machine (M2M) technology can help collect and process information to better monitor and manage transportation systems on an ongoing basis. In the event of a disaster, technology could provide cities with critical data about bridges, r

Europe’s Green eMotion project has announced the test phase of a project that will demonstrate Europe-wide roaming in an interoperable electromobility system and will provide access to new added-value services. Green eMotion will also support the promotion of cross-sector ICT standards for interoperability of electric vehicle (EV) services. Green eMotion is a major EU funded electromobility project; one of its objectives is to develop an IT system that defines the interfaces needed for pan-European electro