Networking & Communication Systems

German company myTaxi, which has revolutionised the European taxi market in less than a year, has extended its group of current investors. Daimler AG subsidiary company Car2go joins the board of the Hamburg-based company acquiring a minority stake. Lars Hinrichs, founder of XING and Hackfwd, is also added to the group of myTaxi shareholders. The existing investors T-Venture, the venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom, and KfW Bankengruppe, all contributed to the capital increase to promote the rapid growth

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Mobisoft Oy and the Finnish Meteorological Institute, with support from partners, have developed a communication system for drivers to inform them about weather and road conditions and prevent serious or fatal accidents. When there is snow or ice on the road, the risk of an accident is increased by a factor of 4.1 compared to normal conditions, according to research conducted at the Tampere University of Technology.

Through an innovative research project across several industries, Ericsson claims it will bring mobile connectivity to electric cars and put choice and control over the charging schedule into the hands of drivers. The new architecture allows drivers to control charging of cars while they are plugged into any ordinary power outlet. Additionally, the system directs energy costs to the car owners’ bill. The driver sets the time and amount to charge on a console in the car or remotely via a smartphone or tablet

The San Francisco Bay Area’s 511 traveller information system is now offering its first smartphone app for transit users. The free 511 Transit App can be downloaded through the Android Market with a version for iPhone 4 to be released soon. The new app provides door-to-door transit trip planning and scheduled departure times for transit routes near your location or from a location you specify. It includes information for 720 routes and more than 23,700 transit stops throughout the region. An interactive, dy

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, has confirmed that a contract has been awarded to Virgin Media to provide public access wi-fi at up to 120 underground station platforms at zero cost to the fare or taxpayer. The new service will launch as a free, unlimited service for all tube passengers this summer and will continue to offer free live Transport for London (TfL) travel information via a new online portal after this period. Virgin Media, in partnership with London Underground, will initially introduce wi-

KBC Networks, manufacturer of industrial transmission equipment for analogue, IP and high definition transmission systems, has expanded its industrial Ethernet switch range with a series of Power over Ethernet (PoE) switches. With the PoE data ports on the switch supplying power directly to the attached networked device, the new additions to the KBC IP transmission range make new installations and system adds faster, easier and more flexible. The units are designed for a wide range of industrial, non-condi

GenX Mobile has introduced its new 3G HSPA product line for the vehicle tracking market. At the core of the platform is u-blox’ compact LISA wireless module series, the world’s smallest 3G modem family, and a u-blox 6 GPS receiver module. 3G HSPA increases bandwidth and performance by using improved modulation schemes and protocols by which wireless products and base stations communicate. A soon to be released 1xRTT version, the LISA-C200, will allow operation on CDMA networks, the largest wireless footprin

Appalachian Lighting Systems has announced a new version of the company’s solid-state parking garage/canopy light series that features embedded ALLink wireless control and monitoring. The ALLED CL Series, featuring 21, 33 and 41W fixtures designed to replace 70 to 175W high intensity discharge (HID) lights in parking garage and canopy applications, can now be wirelessly controlled and monitored for light level scheduling, smart metering, power issue detection and maintenance alerts.

International automotive supplier Continental has joined the OPEN Alliance SIG (One Pair Ether-Net Alliance Special Interest Group) which is dedicated to spreading the use of Ethernet networks as the standard solution for in-vehicle applications.

The use by MDOT of 90-foot concrete poles on which to mount CCTV equipment reduces the number of poles needed to monitor a given area and incidences of occlusion