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The UK’s University of St. Andrews has received £12 million to lead a project on the development of a sodium ion battery for electric vehicles (EV). The four-year Nexgenna project is seeking to commercialise a safe sodium ion battery which offers low cost and long cycle life. The university says the solution could enable EVs to travel further and allow electric trains to run on non-electrified lines, making rural routes in the Scottish Highlands commercially viable. The funding body announced the inve

Q-Free is to deploy its Intrada Synergy Server (ISS) in an IBM contract to upgrade the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDoT) toll road back office. Q-Free says the vehicle identification and automatic number plate recognition system will reduce TxDoT’s number plate image processing costs by processing daily video transactions. ISS is a component of IBM’s integrated solution that can process millions of number plate images from the tolling system video cameras, the company adds. TxDoT is respons

Managed charging (MC) can shift electric vehicle (EV) charging demand in the UK away from peak times, according to a study led by TRL. MC aims to shift plug-in vehicle (PiV) charging load to times - such as overnight - when other demands are low. TRL found that, after experiencing some form of MC, the vast majority of people would be happy to switch to it. This research, part of TRL’s Vehicles and Energy Integration (CVEI) project, set out to investigate the challenges and opportunities involved in

Infor is to manage $19 billion worth of assets managed by Auckland Transport (AT) in New Zealand via its asset management software CloudSuite EAM.

US-based Verra Mobility has partnered with motorway operator APRR to provide toll management services in France. David Roberts, CEO of Verra, says: "Initially, we will be focusing on providing toll services to our rental car company partners throughout France.” The partnership will allow Verra to expand to other countries to make travel in Europe more connected, Roberts adds. Vera intends to develop products for fleets that allow drivers to use electronic toll lanes without having to slow down or stop

Ride-share company Via has expanded its operating zone in Chicago by offering a mobility service to and from 65 Chicago Transit Authority and Metra stations for $2.50. This rate is available to riders booking trips up to two miles within the zone, which includes areas such as Austin, Garfield and South Deering. Alex Lavoie, US general manager of Via, says the service will “provide greater access across the entire city for residents, workers and visitors in these communities.” Using the Via app, passenge

Mobileye has selected telecoms giant Orange to provide Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity for a solution which it claims will make roads safer. The company, part of Intel, says the Mobileye 8 Connect provides drivers with collision avoidance technology based on their behaviour, environmental data and real-time alert data such as recognising pedestrians in low light. The solution - which sees the road ahead through a camera lens - is expected to offer municipalities and utilities data to plan for smart

DiDi Chuxing has launched a robo-taxi pilot in Shanghai which it says will allow passengers to hail vehicles from its app. DiDi is to deploy 30 autonomous vehicles (AVs) operating at SAE Level 4 in the Jiading District of Shanghai. Initially, the programme will comprise AVs and manually-driven vehicles. The company showcased the robo-taxi service on a closed tract at Shanghai’s World Artificial Intelligence Conference. The Shanghai government awarded DiDi permits to test its AV fleet last month.

Telephone company Cincinnati Bell is partnering with the Oregon District Business Association to install a smart city solution to support law enforcement safety initiatives. The partners will install cameras throughout the Oregon District - a neighbourhood in Dayton, Ohio - including its car parks and alleyways. Both parties will install fibre to provide free public Wi-Fi and engagement software to support local businesses. Public Wi-Fi will extend on 5th Street from Wayne Avenue to Patterson Boulev

The UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) says that future road safety will require innovation rather than repeating past measures. Speaking at the UK Department for Transport (DfT)’s International Road Safety Conference, TRL’s academy director Richard Cuerden discussed why a paradigm shift is needed in the transport sector’s approach to road safety interventions to ensure road casualties are reduced significantly by 2030. The number of deaths on the world’s roads remains unacceptably high, with an e

PBSC Urban Solutions is adding 120 electric bikes to Bixi Montréal’s fleet in a pilot project taking place in the Canadian province until 15 November. PBSC says its E-Fit’s central motor propels riders up to 32km/h on a full charge and has an autonomy range of up to 70km. Bixi’s fleet of trucks and warehouse in Montréal will be used to recharge the E-Fit batteries. The E-Fit electric pedal-assist bikes can be docked at any station in the network and are available to Bixi members and casual riders via th

Ride-sharing company Bolt has joined forces with the University of Tartu (UT) in Estonia to develop technology for SAE Level 4 autonomous vehicles (AV). The partners intend to carry out AV pilots in urban areas and integrate AVs onto Bolt’s on-demand transportation platform by 2026. Jevgeni Kabanov, chief product officer at Bolt - formerly Taxify - says: “Rather than developing our own vehicle, the goal of this project is to build our self-driving technology with a focus on software and maps, on top of ex

Volocopter has trialled an air taxi at the Helsinki International Airport in Finland, integrating into the air traffic management (ATM) and unmanned aircraft traffic management (UTM) system. Within the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) Programme, this demonstration is the final part of the Gulf of Finland (GOF) U-Space project showing how ATM and UTM systems enable urban air mobility (UAM). Maria Tamm, project coordinator from Estonian Air Navigation Services, says rules for using very low-level ai

Zenuity has joined forces with CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, to develop fast machine learning for autonomous vehicles (AVs). Zenuity - an autonomous driving software company - is hoping the collaboration will aid the development of AVs that can make decisions and predictions more quickly, thereby avoiding accidents. The partners will also aim to reduce the runtime and memory footprint of deep learning algorithms while minimising energy consumption and cost. They will use CERN’s