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Pack Health has partnered with Uber Health to offer free transportation for patients with chronic conditions travelling to medical appointments in the US state of Alabama. Mazi Rasulnia, CEO of Pack Health, says: “For members who lack reliable means of transportation, or whose health prevents them from driving themselves to key follow-up appointments, offering a free ride through Uber Health is a simple and intuitive way to close care gaps." Pack Health, a health coaching platform, says the partnership w

Antaira Technologies has launched its ARS-7231-AC series, an industrial dual radio wireless unit with router capabilities, which it says can be used in ITS and traffic applications. The solution, embedded with the Qualcomm Atheros QCA9892 chipset, is expected to offer a wide network coverage with a low-voltage input of 9V and support. According to Antaira, the device can be used as an access point, transparent bridge or repeater. These units allow users to position the wireless antennas in a better sign

Itron has chosen Instrumentation Technologies (I-Tech) and Noesis.Network as winners of its inaugural smart city challenge. The companies won the awards for designing Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for London and Glasgow, after developing solutions using Itron’s developer tools and IoT networks in both UK cities. In London, I-Tech designed a two-step solution to improve safety around the River Thames by allowing the city to monitor lifebelts and pinpoint the locations of a person in need of rescue su

The legal framework for what the German authorities call an ‘infrastructure use charge’ has been in place since 2015, and requires passenger vehicles using the country’s highways to pay a vignette of no more than €130 per year. The legal sticking point is that, while owners of vehicles registered in Germany qualify for relief from motor vehicle tax “to an amount that is at least equivalent to the amount of the charge that they will have had to pay”, foreign drivers do not enjoy such a concession. In

Demand for electric vehicles (EVs) has increased 123% in London since the introduction of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), says Carwow. Using data from its website, the car-buying platform found that searches for EVs also increased 56% in the rest of the UK Enquiries for alternative fuel vehicles (AFV) increased 77% in the UK capital and 44% in the rest of the country. Carwow says there has been a 56% year on year increase in searches for hybrid vehicles since May 2018, with a further 92% incre

Scooter-share firm Bird is to acquire Scoot, a San Francisco-based electric vehicle (EV) company. Scoot began deploying electric scooters in San Francisco in 2012 and has expanded in Santiago, Chile and Barcelona. Travis VanderZanden, founder and CEO of Bird says the partnership will work toward replacing “car trips with micro mobility options for all”. Scoot will continue to operate under the same name but as a subsidiary of Bird.

Terrorists who have hijacked vans and trucks to drive into crowds – causing death and injury to pedestrians – could use autonomous vehicles (AVs) to achieve a similar result with no risk to themselves. That was the warning from Mike Gillespie, MD of security firm Advent IM. Speaking this week at the IFSEC International 2019 security conference in London, he said: “Imagine that you don’t have to get in the vehicle, you don’t have to be in the same city – or even the same country.” They would still be a

ParkMobile has joined forces with BMW subsidiary Reach Now to build integrated smart city solutions aimed at improving parking, transit and multimodal transportation. Users could pay for parking in a transit lot via the ParkMobile app and then use Reach Now to buy a ticket to ride a train, bus or ferry. Nat Parker, CEO of Reach Now, says the partners will create “smarter mobility solutions that help drive more intelligence for cities and help consumers get from point A to B”. The partnership betw

Masabi has launched Justride Validator, a ticketing device which it says will make account-based ticketing available for transport authorities of any size. Brian Zanghi, CEO of Masabi, says passengers are expecting to be able to use contactless bank cards and smart devices for ticketing. “However, the reality is that the hardware requirements have made it cost-prohibitive for many transit authorities around the globe,” he continues. “By failing to make tap and ride ticketing accessible to all transport

Teleste is to provide smart display technologies in Sweden which it says are designed to deliver dynamic information across public transport. Teleste claims that the technologies will help public transport operator Storstockholms Lokal Trafik (SL) improve journeys for passengers travelling by metro, buses, commuter trains and local trains. The solutions include a 55-inch touch screen information pillar for delivering travel planner services and weather information as well as platform and multiline displa

Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has released ActiveVision, a machine vision tool that transportation agencies can use to autonomously detect and report changes in traffic conditions. Dan Rossiter, SwRI research analyst, says: "The goal is to help transportation officials enhance their ITS capabilities with advanced algorithms that autonomously scan vast amounts of visual data, extracting and reporting actionable data." SwRI says the tool’s algorithms process camera data to provide real-time informatio

The UK government has wasted hundreds of millions of pounds painting white lines on busy roads to use as cycle lanes, says former Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman. Boardman, cycling and walking commissioner for Greater Manchester, has reportedly joined fellow commissioners Dame Sarah Storey (Sheffield City region) and Will Norman (London) in writing to transport secretary Chris Grayling calling for new measures to be adopted. The Guardian says the letter argues that painted cycle lanes do not make cyc

Electric vehicles (EVs) are being used to power people’s homes on an island in the Atlantic Ocean. Part of Portugal’s Madeira archipelago, Porto Santo is using solar-powered EVs, according to a BBC report. They are charged during the day, with unused energy returned to the grid at night. The Portuguese island is not the only part of the world seeking to harness the potential of solar energy for EVs. In India, Bharat Heavy Electricals is setting up a network of solar-based electric vehicle

Sony Europe’s Image Sensing Solutions (ISS) has unveiled a windscreen glare-removal function designed to help tolling and enforcement operations. It is available on the XPL-SDKW software development kit (SDK) for XCG-CP510 polarised camera modules. Sony ISS says the application is designed to improve road safety through ITS applications such as tracking seatbelt and mobile phone use or identifying a driver caught by speed and red light cameras. The SDK system enables system integrators to cut developm

Engineering company Ansys has joined forces with BMW to develop a simulation tool chain for developing autonomous vehicle (AV) technologies. Eric Bantegnie, vice president and general manager at Ansys, says the solution is designed to address “safety validation requirements for autonomous driving”. Ansys says simulation greatly reduces the need for physical testing which would require billions of miles of road tests across a range of driving conditions. The agreement is expected to help develop