Location Based Systems

While quite common in smartphones and personal computers, remote over-the-air (OTA) software updates are still only in their infancy in the automotive space, according to a new report from IHS Automotive. The report finds that OTA software updates will eventually be a big benefit for the automotive industry due to their capacity to reduce warranty costs, potentially increase overall completion rates for software-related recalls, improve customer satisfaction by eliminating trips to the dealership for so

European Commission and Parliament officials said during a panel discussion in Brussels that they were moving towards regulating connected cars, but are still a long way off from sealing new legislation on autonomous vehicles. Major car companies have been running tests on autonomous or driverless cars over the last couple of years and some European companies have launched test drives with autonomous cars on public streets. Germany's Daimler got the go ahead this month from state authorities to drive the

The laser ranging (LIDAR) systems that most self-driving cars rely on to sense obstacles can be hacked by a setup costing just US$60, a security researcher has told IEEE spectrum. According to Jonathan Petit, principal scientist at software security company Security Innovation, he can take echoes of a fake car, pedestrian or wall and put them in any location. Using such a system, which he designed using a low-power laser and pulse generator, attackers could trick a self-driving car into thinking somethin

Drawing on its experience with optical disc technologies consumer electronics giant, Pioneer Corporation is developing a 3D-LIDAR (light detection and ranging) compact, high performance low-cost sensor for autonomous vehicles. The company has completed trial manufacture of the sensor and will begin in-car trials in 2016. During the in-car trials, Pioneer will launch advanced map creation using mapping vehicles fitted with 3D-LiDAR, with Increment P Corporation, its map creation subsidiary. In the near fu

The latest report from Reportlinker analyses the Australian intelligent transportation systems (ITS) market and indicates that the total market is expected to reach US$1,130.2 million by 2020, at a CAGR of 14.41 per cent between 2015 and 2020. The market for the application of advanced public transportation systems is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.90 per cent during the forecast period. The increasing demand for the use of technology in public transportation for vehicle location and real-time information

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Rise of Virtual Cockpits in Cars finds that the instrument cluster (IC) market in North America and Europe is expected to clock a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.2 percent from 2014 to 2021, with digital IC expected to reach a CAGR of approx. 26 percent by 2021. While the virtual cockpit will be limited to premium-segment vehicles, fully digital clusters that will be standard in about 20 percent of cars will also be offered as an option on medium-segment cars.

The US Department of Transportation (USDOT) has awarded Iteris a US$5.8 million task order for continued support and evolution of the national intelligent transportation system (ITS) architecture and the Connected Vehicle Reference Implementation Architecture (CVRIA) through 2018. This new task order continues the evolution of the national ITS architecture and supports its application at regional, state and local agency levels for planning and development of ITS projects. The work defined in the task or

A recent report from Navigant Research, Connected Vehicles, examines the market for connected vehicles, with a focus on the key components of vehicle-to-external communications (V2X) communications technology and factors that may influence successful deployment. The study provides an analysis of how these factors, including the cost of hardware, regulations, potential societal benefits, and security and privacy concerns, are projected to affect OEMs, hardware and software suppliers, regulators, and intellig

The USDOT's Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Professional Capacity Building (PCB) Program is to host a free Talking Technology and Transportation (T3) webinar to discuss workforce skills that support the future connected vehicle (CV) environment. The webinar, entitled Connected Vehicle Workforce, is scheduled for 10 September from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm EST.

UK gas distribution company SGN is expecting to save in the region of US$1.5 million by implementing a driver performance improvement programme across its 2,000-strong fleet. The company, which operates across the south of England and the whole of Scotland, , is using TomTom Telematics technology, including driver behaviour improvement system OptiDrive 360, to tackle inefficient practice.