Location Based Systems

It is now 20 years since publication of the Strategic Plan for Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems. A select group of luminary figures of the ITS industry give their assessment of progress to date This year the IVHS Strategic Plan turns 20, signaling the graduation of the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems from its tumultuous teens to young adulthood. After two decades tethered by the cords of youth and protected by the strict control of adult institutions, ITS has reached a turning point. Its y

It is now 20 years since publication of the Strategic Plan for Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems. A select group of luminary figures of the ITS industry give their assessment of progress to date This year the IVHS Strategic Plan turns 20, signaling the graduation of the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems from its tumultuous teens to young adulthood. After two decades tethered by the cords of youth and protected by the strict control of adult institutions, ITS has reached a turning point. Its y

GO Transit, a division of Metrolinx, located in Toronto, Canada, that carries 61 million passengers a year has chosen INIT to deploy a new fleet management system for 424 GO buses, 47 GO rail cars and 50 non-revenue vehicles. The contract calls for an advanced ITS solution which includes an intermodal CAD/AVL system, on-board mobile data terminals, automatic passenger counting technology, next stop announcements, in-vehicle variable message signs, real-time vehicle diagnostics and interfaces to existing des

The Transport Research Laboratory has unveiled an innovative semi-autonomous vehicle prototype. It offers improves in environmental performance and safety but also displays some shortcomings. Mike Woof reports. The UK's Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has been working on an innovative project to develop a prototype vehicle intended to reduce fuel consumption. Based on a Ford Escape hybrid model, TRL's Sentience vehicle uses a combination of mobile communications and mapping technologies to reduce fuel c

Research from the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) shows that ‘black box’ motor insurance sales have increased five fold in the last two years, and are set to snowball to around 500,000 in the next two years. BIBA says that the telematics technology can offer savings on motor insurance of around 2530 per cent and some young drivers can save up to US$1,554.

Q-Free's Per Frederik Ecker talks about the Slovak Republic's new truck tolling system, which is intended to compensate for the large amounts of transit traffic which passes through the country. In January this year Q-Free, together with Siemens, was awarded the contract to deliver the new national truck tolling scheme in the Slovak Republic. This will be operated by Slovakia SkyToll on a 13-year concession and Q-Free is supplying the central tolling and enforcement system, together with a three-year servic

Garmin International has announced Glo, a portable GPS and Glonass that provides significant new benefits. When using both GPS and Glonass satellites, the time it takes for the receiver to “lock on” to a position is (on average) approximately 20 per cent faster than using GPS alone. Moreover, when using both GPS and Glonass, the receiver has access to 24 more satellites than using GPS alone. Garmin says this is particularly helpful for users who need reliable satellite navigation in challenging environments

A European Commission-sponsored research project took a significant step towards vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) when it presented its results at the Dutch DITCM test site in Helmond last week. The event unveiled the Drive C2X reference system, demonstrating for the first time the ability to create a harmonised testing environment across Europe. The research project brings together car manufacturers, research institutes, authorities and information technology providers to provid

According to a new research report, Fleet management in the Americas, from Berg Insight, the number of fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in North America was 2.8 million in Q4-2011. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.9 per cent, this number is expected to reach 5.9 million by 2016. In Latin America, the number of installed fleet management systems is expected to increase from 1.3 million in Q4-2011, growing at a CAGR of 16.6 per cent to reach 2.8 million in 20

The German motorist organisation Automobil Kraftfaher-Schutz (KS) has awarded Scania its Energy and Environmental Prize for 2012 for its intelligent cruise control system, Scania Active Prediction. The system uses GPS in order to determine the vehicle's position and to predict the topography of the road ahead.