News

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

Jenoptik is to deliver 10 semi-stationary speed monitoring trailers equipped with the TraffiStar S350 laser scanner to improve traffic safety in Cologne, Germany. The firm says its product allows users to monitor the speed of multiple vehicles and lanes simultaneously and assign measurement results to all the relevant vehicles using laser technology. With accumulator batteries, the measurement technology can be used independently of an external power supply for about a week – for instance, at accide

NLC publishes micromobility guide in US

Iteris is to provide design and operations services to traffic management centres (TMCs) in a bid to improve road safety in the greater Los Angeles area. The contracts, in the cities of Inglewood and Glendale, total more than $1 million, and support the cities’ stated goals of ingesting data from Internet of Things (IoT) devices into central traffic operations hubs to better anticipate traffic-related issues. In Inglewood, Iteris will design its new main TMC and related traffic management operations s

The Detroit Department of Transportation (DDoT) has partnered with the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) to launch a unified payment system for the US region’s buses. Detroit’s mayor Mike Duggan says: “Dart will bring our two systems closer together with seamless transfers and more flexible payments making riding transit easier for everyone.” According to the mayor’s office, riders can take unlimited rides on both systems as each pass starts on the first use for the time

Lucid Vision Labs has launched its Atlas 12.3 MP and 31.4 MP cameras over 5GBase-T PoE which it says can be used for ITS and traffic applications. Rod Barman, founder and president at Lucid, says: “The 5GBase-T Atlas camera hits the sweet spot of faster frame rates, small size and excellent price-performance.” According to Lucid, the 5GBase-T Ethernet interface offers similar bandwidth as CameraLink, allowing the use of standard CAT5e and CAT6 cables up to 100 metres. Atlas supports large format

Gig has launched its an electric car-share service in Sacramento, California, and will award one member of its programme a year of free driving. Gig says members can participate in the competition by taking a trip with the service until 31 May. The company says the app allows users to see available cars and book up to 30 minutes in advance or instantly choose any of its vehicles which are display a green windshield light. The car can be unlocked via a smartphone and be driven from using a power butt

Parsons is to develop a decision support system using artificial intelligence (AI) to help relieve congested areas along the I-405 Sepulveda Pass corridor in Los Angeles (LA). The company says the system uses structured rules combined with incident and real-time congestion data to drive traffic strategies that mitigate and minimise impacts caused by traffic accidents or sporting events. Parsons will work with Caltrans District 7 Traffic Operations and Los Angeles City Department of Transportation to

Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development (TRI-AD), technology company Maxar Technologies and NTT Data are working together to build high-definition (HD) maps for autonomous vehicles (AV) using satellite imagery. TRI-AD carried out an analysis, saying that current HD maps cover less than 1% of the global road network and there is a need to broaden the coverage of urban areas and local roads before AVs can become a mainstream mobility technology. A HD map created from satellite imagery would all

Hydro is launching a rotating mast arm which says will improve safety for operators responsible for maintaining traffic signals on multi-lane carriageways. Operators can control the rotating mechanism by using an internal winch located in a separate door compartment at ground level. The aluminium solution can either be installed in the ground or via the retention socket with anti-rotation design. Local technical support is available in the UK.

Shropshire Council in England has installed 115 StradaPAL contactless parking terminals from Flowbird across 10 towns. Councillor Steve Davenport, portfolio holder for highways and transport, says: “The new terminals enable the council to meet growing demand for the convenience of contactless payments for parking among its residents and visitors.” The terminals offer contactless, Chip and PIN and coin payment options along with a capability to print vouchers for local promotions, replacing all coin-only