Skip to main content

World Congress opens to news of Austrian telematics developments

Austria’s Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology has announced the start of a major test programme to evaluate telematics devices. Speaking at a press conference to launch the World Congress, Doris Bures said that from next week, 3,000 Austrian motorists would participate in a scheme to deliver in-vehicle road information. Geographcally-targeted information on road conditions, weather and traffic would be transmitted to drivers. “If you’re in a car driving on a motorway in eastern Austria,
October 22, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
Doris Bures, Fedral Minister for Transport
Austria’s Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology has announced the start of a major test programme to evaluate telematics devices.

Speaking at a press conference to launch the World Congress, Doris Bures said that from next week, 3,000 Austrian motorists would participate in a scheme to deliver in-vehicle road information. Geographcally-targeted information on road conditions, weather and traffic would be transmitted to drivers.

“If you’re in a car driving on a motorway in eastern Austria, it’s not interesting to you whether, in the west of Austria, there is congestion in a tunnel. So, you will only get those pieces of information that are important for the sections of road where you are driving.”

The test, being organised by Austria’s motorway operator 750 ASFINAG, will culminate in an evaluation of the performance of the system and whether any modifications are necessary. “The goal is to develop the most sophisticated and outstanding technology that can be launched on to the market,” said Bures.

She added that her ministry had provided around €100 million of funding for ITS projects over the past decade and helped the Austria’s ITS sector to grow to 20,000 jobs.

Meanwhile, Christian Kern, CEO of Austrian Railways, announced that his company would shortly sign a contract with 1691 Google to aid travel mobility. Although details were still confidential, he said it would be similar to an arrangement between Google and 5344 Deutsche Bahn, the German rail operator, which provides a platform giving information on train connections.

Related Content

  • October 22, 2018
    The long road to Spanish enlightenment
    Julián Núñez, immediate past president of ASECAP, gets his teeth into the vision of a European strategy for toll roads. David Arminas reports from Madrid. Getting European politicians to agree to a long-term cross-border highway infrastructure programme for toll roads is extremely difficult. It’s a bit like pulling teeth: people want to avoid the pain. But pain is something that Spanish operators, including Abertis, OHL, ACS, FCC and Acciona, have been going through for the past decade. The country has
  • April 8, 2014
    UK defaults to hard shoulder running to expand motorway capacity
    Hard shoulder running has become the UK’s default response to increasing motorway capacity as Colin Sowman reports. Facing a predicted 46% increase in traffic levels by 2040 and the current economic recovery leading to more people travelling to, from and for work leaves the UK government under short- and long-term pressure to increase the capacity on the main motorway network. Particular sections of motorways are already experiencing repeated, sometimes tidal, congestion and both tight Treasury limits and t
  • September 28, 2020
    The benefit of Lidar: touch, don’t look
    The benefits of Lidar as a safety device for automobiles rather than as an enabler for AVs are easy to overlook – but Dr Jun Pei of Cepton Technologies tells Adam Hill why that would be a big mistake
  • August 21, 2014
    Ken Leonard talks to ITS International
    Ken Leonard, director of the USDOT’s ITS Joint Program office made time in his schedule during the Helsinki Congress to speak to ITS International. It has been 18 months since Ken Leonard took over as the director of the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office at the US Department of Transportation. With 30 years of technical experience behind him, to say he is enjoying the challenge would be to put it mildly: “It is incredibly exciting to be working in intelligent transportation systems, th