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Bike-share company Indego is adding 400 more pedal-assist electric bikes to its pilot in Philadelphia. Waffiyyah Murray, Better Bike Share Partnership programme manager, says: ““Adding more electric bikes to the fleet will help address several barriers and open the door for new cyclists who may not have considered using Indego before.” The Better Bike Share Partnership, a collaboration funded by the JPB Foundation, focuses on building equitable and replicable bike-share systems. In 2015, Indego used fundi

Austria’s road financing company Autobahnen- und Schnellstrassen-Finanzierungs (Asfinag) will invest around €8 billion in roads and motorways by 2024. Annual net profits stood at €824 million and debt was reduced by €235 million. Toll income was up 6.9% for trucks and busses to around €1.5 billion and for cars by 4.6% to around €690 million. Major future projects include the Vienna south-east tangent and the western motorway A1 as well as reconstruction of the motorway between Innsbruck and the German bor

Toyota AI Ventures has announced a $100 million fund dedicated to investing in early-stage start-ups developing autonomous mobility and robotics. The company says the fund brings its total assets under management to more than $200m to invest in and support promising projects around the world. Jim Adler, managing director of Toyota AI Ventures, says: “Investing in start-ups creates long-term relationships that help Toyota explore the latest innovations in mobility.” The company looks across a range of in

Swedish bus operator Nobina has ordered 20 additional electric buses from BYD, bringing its total electric fleet to 138 vehicles. Nobina says the 18m articulated electric buses are powered by cobalt-free iron-phosphate batteries which offer high levels of performance and operational safety. Two separate deliveries of this latest BYD e-bus order will be made, with four vehicles destined for the Barkarby district of Stockholm, and 16 for the city of Linköping. Deliveries of the buses are expected to comm

The government of New Zealand has unveiled a plan to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, says: “To address the long-term challenge of climate change, today we introduce the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Bill to Parliament.” James Shaw, minister for climate change, says: “The critical thing is to do everything we can over the next 30 years to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius and the Zero Carbon Bill makes that a legally bindin

Tritium has opened two R&D electric mobility innovation centres in Australia and the Netherlands. The Tritium e-mobility centre in Brisbane serves as an expansion of the company’s headquarters and will be used to develop disruptive technologies for electric vehicles (EVs). A portion of Electric Power Research Institute's $3.2m package, issued by the US Department of Energy, will be used to develop an extreme fast-charging system which is expected to add 475km of range to an EV in 10 minutes. Last

Six out of ten global experts say smart cities are failing disabled people, according to a new survey. Smart Cities for All, a global initiative comprising non-profits G3it and World Enabled, says just 18% of experts confirm that the smart city initiatives familiar to them use international standards for ICT accessibility. ICT accessibility is the quality of a mainstream technology to be used by the widest range of users regardless of abilities or disabilities. The survey, based on 175 entrepreneurs in

Israel-based ERM Telematics has partnered with Altair Semiconductor to develop a range of low-powered and installation-free automotive Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. ERM says its new set of IoT and asset management solutions utilise Altair’s optimised cellular IoT chipsets to provide installation-free solutions for IoT, asset management, stolen vehicle recovery and financial services. These will include event-based platforms for automatic vehicle location and asset management applications using vari

McCain has been chosen by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) to control more than 500 signalised intersections in the Canadian province. The company will deploy its Transparity traffic management system (TMS) to manage traffic flow and promote mobility with real-time traffic data and management tools. McCain’s Canadian partner and distributor, Innovative Traffic Solutions, secured the agreement. Frank Rao, president of Innovative, says: “Upgrading their current traffic management so

Dayli Blockchain is taking part in a smart city challenge to build a solution to help improve parking in the city of Bicheon in South Korea. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation’s (MOLIT) smart city challenge supports collaboration between local governments and private corporations to solve transportation, environmental and other urban issues, and to create new business models. Dayli, Yello Mobile’s smart city solution company, says it will provide a service portal to manage individua

Trade association ITS America has expressed disappointment that Toyota is pausing its Vehicle to Everything (V2X) deployment in the US. The Japanese car maker sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) saying that a lack of activity from other manufacturers on V2X – plus uncertainty over the regulatory position – had led to the decision. In a statement, ITS America said it was ‘disappointed’, adding: “We appreciate Toyota’s leadership and commitment to life-saving V2X technology.” Th

Karhoo has opened an office in Krakow, Poland, to serve as a development, engineering and operational hub in Eastern Europe. The company says local fleets using the Karhoo platform will benefit from accessing more exposure, enabling them to win big contracts. According to Karhoo, the firm’s ride-hailing marketplace brings together regulated, licensed taxi and private hire vehicle fleets in the form of an electronic platform which can integrate with travel and leisure operators’ platforms and apps.

Masabi has secured £20 million in a funding round to accelerate the expansion of its mobility platform Justride. Masabi says Justride removes the need for passengers to buy a ticket by allowing them to tap a contactless bank card, mobile phone or smart card to travel. The round of investment, led by venture capital firms Smedvig Capital with MMC Ventures, is expected to allow the company to bring its ticketing and payments technology to more cities and transit operators around the world. Addition

Telensa has joined forces with Samsung SDS to work on smart city projects in Asia Pacific and the US. Starting with Korea, the partners will collaborate on smart streetlighting, combining Telensa’s Planet Streetlight control application with Samsung’s Brightics Internet of Things (IoT) platform to help cities save energy and access a range of sensor applications. Telensa will utilise Samsung’s resources in areas such as 5G and blockchain, which require streetlight access for widescale deployment.

MaaS Global is trialling its Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platform Whim in Japan in a tie-up with property developer Mitsui Fudosan. The Finnish company says both parties will collaborate with local transport service providers and conduct a ‘proof of concept’ trial in the Greater Tokyo area, prior to a planned launch later this year. The partnership allows MaaS Global to employ what CEO Sampo Hietanen calls “our Real Estate x MaaS vision: the next evolution phase to combine living and mobility”. Mitsu